Live music, local artists, good company and cheap drinks took over Hunter’s Ale House last weekend during the 7th annual Midwest Fest. With two stages, 16 bands were able to move audiences, making it the biggest Midwest Fest to date.

Midwest Fest is more than a music festival. According to its organizers, it has become a showcase of local musical and artistic talent from across Michigan and beyond.

“I really enjoy putting it together every year,” Midwest Fest founder Corey Densmore said. “Each one is always different, and it’s fun to paste together everything and see how it fits, to make it the best possible festival.”

Putting on the music festival is something that Densmore looks forward to each year. Discovering new music and meeting new people is what Midwest Fest is all about, he said.

“The Midwest is just a really good hot bed of music and talent,” he said. “It’s just a really good weekend of music where people can get together and witness other bands and meet new people. Hopefully everyone finds someone new that they didn’t know before, that’s what the point of the festival is.”

Pat Simons, general manager of Hunter’s Ale House, has a personal connection with hosting Midwest Fest. After transitioning from Coco Joe’s Beach House to Hunter’s Ale House, he decided to incorporate live music and local talent.

“I saw a lot of great shows when I went to college here, and then it sort of dropped off,” Simons said. “The hip-hop generation took over, it became more of a dance club scene than a live music scene. This really hindered the live music scene in Mount Pleasant because there wasn’t a demand for it. Now it’s getting back into the age of live music and festivals, people are sick of hearing the same track on the radio or on their iPod.”

The Burning Bushes opened Friday night and got the crowd on their feet by performing covers of Journey and The Beatles. Coming back to Mount Pleasant is what vocalist, Dan Louisell, was most excited about.

“I really like to play at Midwest Fest because I am from Mount Pleasant and I played the first Midwest Fest,” Louisell said. “It’s fun to come back home. It’s also nice reminder that you can go out and see actual musicians playing actual music instead of just MP3s.”

He also gave advice to aspiring local artists and musicians.

“Don’t ever let anybody say your idea is stupid, because the stupid ideas are the ones that go the farthest,” Louisell said.

Commerce senior Caitlin Richards enjoys the local music and said the festival brings the community together and supports local businesses.

“I love Hunter’s, I come here pretty often,” Richards said. “I really love that they have all of these live bands, and I love Kavazabava. I think Midwest Fest helps support not only local bands, but also local artists, and the local businesses, such as Hunter’s.”

For Mike Adams, vocalist of Mike Adams at His Honest Weight, Midwest Fest has brought uniqueness to Mount Pleasant. Local acts are able to perform and share their talent, he said.

“This is our first time at Midwest Fest, we are definitely a Midwest band,” Adams said. “We feel comfortable, it’s our people here, and it’s a cool thing. Not every town has this, and it’s really exciting to participate in. It gives the town a vibe, it makes it unique.”

Seeing Mount Pleasant based band, Big Sherb, perform Saturday night is what Ann Arbor senior Jeff Higgins looked forward to the most. The popular funk/jam band got a large crowd dancing and singing along to their set.

“We literally were jamming out to them all day,” Higgins said. “We were so ready for them, their set was the best. Even AOK killed it and Alex Kostka was sweet too.”

Higgins said the festival brings a diversity of culture to Mount Pleasant.

“The festival brings a great variety,” he said. “People don’t really see bands like Big Sherb or other bands coming out of Mount Pleasant. I feel like being in college everybody just listens to electronic music or dubstep. Having live bands and live music isn’t an average night like Pint Night, it’s different and it’s really cool.”