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Organizers behind a new music venue billed as Michigan’s first to allow the sales and consumption of both cannabis and alcohol have scaled back its original plans for entertainment programming.
The venue, dubbed Field of Greens, was supposed to launch on May 18 with “Bikers, Buds & Brews,” set to feature ’90s alternative rock bands Soul Asylum and Marcy Playground and intended to coincide with Baldwin’s annual Blessing of the Bikes, in which aa Catholic priest blesses motorcycles ahead of the summer season. It was also to be the first of five festivals planned for the new outdoor venue in 2024.
Those five originally planned events have now been scaled down into two multi-day festivals, organizers Grams & Jams Productions announced Thursday.
Instead, Soul Asylum will now perform as part of Grams & Jams’ third annual Cannabash festival, set for July 12-14, along with acts like Blake Banks, DJ Jodi Dro, and DJ Prim. A full lineup is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Marcy Playground will now perform at a new event called Summer Send Off, planned for August 23-24.
Grams & Jams said it made the decision to scale back its events in response to “community feedback.”
“We take the voice of the greater Baldwin community seriously and are committed to producing events that not only entertain but also enrich the local community, while respecting its residents,” Grams & jams executive producer Connie Maxim-Sparrow said in a statement. “By modifying our event schedule, we are ensuring that our music experiences are more than just fun — they are a true collaboration with the community.”
Maxim-Sparrow elaborated on the community feedback Grams & Jams received.
“[The] primary concern was having two major events at the same time,” Maxim-Sparrow tells Metro Times. “The community was very concerned about having additional activities happening during their Blessing of the Bikes Celebration. As you know Lake County is one of the least populated in the state, they have limited emergency resources, and were fearful that an already stretched emergency services system would be further stretched by the additional event. Additionally, Lake County and its rural communities have several summer ‘homecoming’ events throughout the summer and we did not want to take attendance away from those events.”
She adds, “It was a win/win and the community is very excited.”
Grams & Jams kicked off its Cannabash festival in Muskegon in 2022 with a focus on hip-hop, drawing some 12,000 attendees in 2023. Earlier this year, Grams & Jams announced it would launch its own music venue to have more control over its productions and be able to hold multiple events throughout the year.
While Michigan liquor laws prevent alcohol and cannabis from being sold and consumed in the same place, Field of Greens plans to divide its space with a fence and have alcohol on one side and cannabis on the other.
Construction of the venue is planned for 30-acres of land where the cannabis dispensary Baldwin Provisions is also located.
This post was updated with additional comments from Maxim-Sparrow.
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Lee DeVito
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