MidPoint Music Festival

Good Crowd. Plus the performers were amazing. Even staffs were friendly.

MPMF 2016's blacktopped hotplate made it hard to enjoy the great lineup. The old days of an insane three-day bar crawl could be physically debilitating, but last year's venue was torture. I wouldn't have come back. I hope the new site can be locked in. It fixes the old problems very well, and all four stages worked well . If they could get use of the parking lot next to the Masonic hall to make more room for food trucks and tables Oh, yeah- the talent- I'm used to seeing six to ten outstanding acts, and one or two that blow me away. Six-and-two on that score, and I only went Saturday! If you missed Filthy Friends (shoulda had a 90 minute slot) and Welles (timeless rock insanity- check their video for "Life Like Mine"- you'll be singing along with the chorus!) too bad. Looking forward to 2018.

This year's Midpoint from what I was told was under new management. It was moved from Washington Park to around 12th st in downtown Cincinnati. The sewer smell was out of control. I know this was not under their control, but Washington Park was way better the year before. The VIP Experience was pretty underwhelming. There was a free meal provided. The same food was served each day which was a little annoying. The first night the only VIP viewing was at the side of the stage. Luckily the next day they made some strange makeshift area stage right out of guard rails. Also the lady they had working the first night of VIP by the stage was very rude. They had the whole back open until the last two acts. You could walk around. Talk to the artists. It was a blast. Supposedly it was limited because someone got up on stage, which we never saw. I will give them the benefit of the doubt that it happened, but the lady was very rude about the makeshift closing. You could tell that the walkie talkie was like a cops gun to her. Power trip. So as far as feeling VIP, they did not even come close to the mark. As far as the acts. There were definitely some good acts. Sadly, some of the stages were so close that sound bleed was killer, and really took away from the mood of quiet songs. They also put some huge and up coming acts on the WNKU stage at the same time as some beloved acts on the main stage. I know there is a lot to consider with booking bands, but its like they didn't even try to make a more cohesive schedule. Who in the world would put The Mountain Goats on at the same time as Wolf Parade? A madman. There were also too many world music acts, and Dad Rock bands. I appreciate trying to reach a wide audience, but how many 19 man bands should one festival goer have to listen to? Also JJ Grey as a headliner? Wut? So in summation, it was OK. VIP was bordering on being a joke. Jump on presale tickets only if you have disposable income. I would only go again if the line up was jaw dropping, and they really put a focus on a new and improved VIP experience. WNKU radio ruled though. I really liked that tent.

I thought the bands were great and I was really impressed. I would definitely go back again. The only thing is that I wish it wasn't on blacktop, it was incredibly warm and made for a really long day.

Usually the event is held at multiple venues across Cincinnati. This year it was in a parking lot with stages right next to each other. The bands were great; just not listening to them play over each other.

The venue was terrible, standing on broken and uneven hot blacktop all day is not really a blast. MPMF was far better before. Really terrible set up. The free area was clostriphobic and it was beer and limited crappy mixed drinks only, not a glass of wine or actual bar in the venue. Food was fine but MPMF did not do anything there other th manicure vendors, and they were fine. It was a mess. Won't return.

You could hear the bands playing at the other stages very clearly, making the band you waited to see hard to hear. I felt bad for the bands because they were looking out into a literal parking lot. I've been to festivals on blacktop many of times but nothing as bad as this one.

Music: The lineup of bands was once again awesome. At least this hasn't changed. They were quite diverse in genre and there was a nice mix of national, regional, and local acts. Stages: The stages were both a boon and a bane. While it was nice to have everything close together and minimize the amount of walking one might have to do there was serious bleed from one stage to another; particularly the WNKU stage and the Skyline stage. This was most noticeable when one band was more folk oriented and the other was more hard rockin' (e.g., Dead Horses vs Injecting Strangers). Another problem that I'm not sure anyone foresaw was the case where one band cut into the start time of another band on the adjacent stage (e.g., The Budos Band vs Bob Mould). If it's only a couple of minutes then no big deal. Ten minutes? The sound crew needs to pull the plug! I'm really glad they had the free-to-the-public Eli's BBQ Stage where a lot of great, local acts could be showcased. I really missed the bar hopping part of the experience, though. Even if it did mean more mileage on my not-getting-any-younger legs. Entrance: This was a total FUBAR on Day 1. They seemed surprised to see people at the gate on the first day. No bar code scanners. No signs. Volunteers that weren't sure what to do. They didn't let people in until 3:20 and the first act was scheduled to start at 3:00. That's pretty unacceptable for what ought to be the easiest part of the whole process (greet person, scan ticket, put on wrist band, tell person to enjoy the festival, lather, rinse, repeat). Also, the gate, ticket office, and street barricade were too close to one another. There was only about a 10 foot wide space in which to navigate from the midway to the gate and vice versa. A little more elbow room in this area would have been helpful. Food/Drink: Great selection of food trucks and beer vendors including local craft brews. Personally, I would have preferred patronizing the OTR bars, but at least we weren't subjected to solely Budweiser products. Unfortunately, outside of a few Red Bull stands I couldn't find anyone that sold soft drinks. Unlike some of my good friends (you know who you are!) I can't start drinking at 2:00pm in 85+ degree weather. The water refill station was nice, though, and I visited there many times over the weekend. The picnic tables in the paid area were very nice. A great place to sit and eat/drink and still hear the bands on the Skyline and Elliot stages (as long as there wasn't any competition from the WNKU stage, that is). Tickets: They need to sell 3-day passes at least up to the start of the festival. Not sure why they cut this off so far in advance of Day 1. Seems to be an easy thing to do at the box office; if they can do it for one day then why not for three? Parking: Pretty much a non-issue, at least for me. The garage across Sycamore was pretty handy and reasonably priced. Sound: The bleed issue aside (see above) I was happy with the sound, but I don't have the ear that some others do so maybe take that comment with a grain of salt. Last, but not least, an issue mentioned by several of my friends and one that I agree with: Drop the name "MPMF". This is not the MPMF we all grew to know and love. It's something else. Call it CincyOTRFest or somesuch, but not MPMF. Would I go again? Had you asked me that 3 or 4 hours into Day 1 I would have said "No way.", but by the end of Day 3 I think I would have said "Maybe". I still got to see a boatload of bands; some I knew and a few that I didn't, but glad I found them. I'll see how I feel next year.

Loved Frightened Rabbit and Reggie. But Reggie was not kidding when he joked that the sound engineers were mixing for people watching from the stairwell of the parking garage on Sycamore Street. During Frightened Rabbit's set, the bass drum was louder than everything at all times. Oddly enough, Antibalas, which with 10+ members seemed a much harder band to mix, sounded great. Also liked the James Hunter Six. Overall, I'm a fan of having the bands in area clubs, as in years past, with one large stage outside for bigger draws. The sound is more consistent in the clubs, and when sets are short as they are with MidPoint that's crucial.

Had an excellent time in cincinnati for this festival. We got VIP passes for the weekend which, at $140, were extremely reasonable. Kamasi Washington, Bob Mould, Future Islands, Lucero, so many good acts. I like that they did the two stage setup like how Lockn' used to have. Meant constant music from the main stage. I didn't get to the side stages very much, despite there being bands that interested me. We pretty much just posted up in the VIP viewing area. Free food and drinks for 3 hours didn't hurt my feelings. It's definetly not something I've gotten with other VIP experiences. Very cool. There were definitely some security issues to work out. Inconsistency and rudeness from security was a problem, but perhaps that's more of an individual issue than a systemic one. Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves. If the lineup is anywhere near as good next year, I'll be back.

The setup of the stages was horrible. Having the skyline and ymca stages next to each other was great, but at the wnku stage you could hear the other stages. The sound at both places was competing. They should have either had the stages farther apart, or had less bands so that only one was playing at a time. If it is set up the same way next time there is no way I would attend.

Just wanted to put everyone on notice that they have COMPLETELY changed the format of MidPoint as it existed from inception (around 2002 I believe) through 2014. It used to be tons of the best local, regional, national, and even international bands "on the cusp," up & comers that you may have heard only a little, or nothing, about, that you could catch in small venues around downtown on Thursday, Friday, and Sat. nights, late into the evening. That was the main thrill of it, plotting your course each evening and going from small venue to small venue, discovering exciting new acts! But the festival was bought by corporate ownership in 2014, and in my opinion it's gone downhill pretty substantially. There are still some great bands coming this year, no doubt, but it's all on a few big stages rather than lots of small venues, and it's mostly during the day on Sat. & Sun. -- to cater to "families," allegedly. #?!?# So go if you like the bands, but if you've been in the past, be prepared for a completely different experience, for better or worse.

There were no more than 40 people there. They were all related to each other and to the band so it was really awkward that I didn't know anyone. Also it was just really hard to get into a concert mood with so few people there.