More than 2,000 attend annual Shipyard Music Festival

(Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect updated ticket sales.)

Julie Palmer was on a blanket reading a selection from the “Outlander” book series Saturday beneath a sunny sky at Shipyard Music and Culture Festival at Ivers Square in downtown Cape Girardeau.

The Cape Girardeau native said she attended Friday night and stayed for several hours.

Dawson Hollow's Kyle Link waves to the crowd while on stage with the band during Shipyard Music and Culture Festival on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, in Cape Girardeau.Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian

“Then my 11-year-old wanted to come back and hang with friends” on Saturday, she said.

Palmer said her favorite band was Dawson Hollow, which performed Friday evening, but the food offerings were also intriguing.

“I love them. Last night my husband had a sandwich from Gabriel’s Food + Wine,” she said. “I got some tacos from El Sol.”

Diana Kershaw, also of Cape Girardeau, was sitting with her husband, Ken, on the edge of the gazebo at the VIP area several feet from the stage.

“It’s really awesome, to get all the appetizers,” she said of the selection delivered by Mary Jane Burgers + Brew. Ken said he enjoyed the macaroni and cheese with pork, chicken teriyaki and chips and salsa.

“We’ll see how long we’ll make it,” he said of the bands set to perform later in the evening. “It’s good music so far, really good music. We’re learning we like some of them now, so we’re going to look them up.”

Originally from New York, Katrina Lastra was midchew motioning her chicken nachos were tasty. Now living in Cape Girardeau, Lastra said she was attending because of Jukebox the Ghost, set to perform later in the evening.

Taylor Bridges — a member of Retro City, a band that performed Friday — said he keeps up with music from Colony House and The New Respects.

“Colony House is one of my favorite bands,” he said.

Rustmedia creative director Jeff Rawson said attendees seem to “overwhelmingly” enjoy the variety of the bands. “People have been stoked since we started Friday night, all the way up until now. That’s what we were trying to build, and to see it happen has been really amazing,.”

Rawson said more than 2,000 people attended and 1,798 tickets to the festival were sold.

Shipyard Music and Culture Festival is a production of the Southeast Missourian and rustmedia.