Downtown St. Cloud is about to fill up with more than 100 musicians spread across 11 stages at eight venues, as the Common Roots Music Festival returns for its ninth year next week. The three-day event kicks off Thursday with a variety show at the Red Carpet main stage, with doors at 8:30 p.m. and music starting at 9 p.m., before expanding into full weekend programming Friday and Saturday.
The festival, as reported by WJON, requires every performer to play original music and maintain some connection to St. Cloud — some acts have called the city home for two decades, while others are St. Cloud State alumni. Organizers plan to use outdoor spaces as much as possible, with acoustic stages set up outside but ready to move indoors if the weather turns. Big band performances will stick to indoor stages at Pioneer Place, Red Carpet, Gnarly Bard, and B-Side, according to the same report.
That outdoor-first approach carries some risk. Weather has disrupted the festival before — in August 2021, organizers had to cancel Friday's outdoor street performances along 5th Avenue South due to severe thunderstorm forecasts, according to KVSC 88.1 FM. Saturday performances went ahead as planned that year, with more than 200 artists appearing across 11 venues.
A Weekend Built Around Local Sound
Friday's music starts at 4 p.m. at the Red Carpet outside deck and, per WJON, continues past 10 p.m. Saturday brings an early start, with the Granite City Jazz Trio playing first at 9:30 a.m. at Jules' Bistro, and live music continuing through 10 p.m. that night. Genres on offer span singer-songwriter, jazz, hard rock, funk, and more, giving festivalgoers a reason to bounce between venues over the course of the weekend.
Saturday afternoon also spotlights the festival's youngest performers, with B-Side Indie Music Cafe launching its student stage at 1 p.m. B-Side operates as a non-profit, alcohol-free, all-ages coffee house under the Independent Music Collaborative of Central Minnesota, according to St. Cloud Shines. The venue, along with the collaborative's Project 37 initiative, gives young local musicians a rare all-ages platform in a downtown scene otherwise dominated by 21-plus bars.
From Construction Fallout to Nine Years of Growth
Common Roots wasn't always this sprawling. It began in 2017 as a grassroots effort by downtown business owners looking to bring back foot traffic after a lengthy road construction project on 5th Avenue South had driven customers away, per St. Cloud Shines. By 2019, it had grown into a four-day event with nearly 90 acts across 12 stages, and this year's lineup keeps that scale largely intact with more than 40 performances packed into three days.
The festival is organized by the Independent Music Collaborative of Central Minnesota, a 501(c)(3) non-profit formed around 2016 after the 2014 closing of longtime record store Electric Fetus left a gap in the area's independent music scene, St. Cloud Shines reports. Common Roots also draws public support through Minnesota's Arts and Cultural Heritage Legacy Fund, the voter-approved constitutional amendment that has directed state sales-tax revenue toward arts and cultural preservation since 2008.
St. Cloud State University's public radio station, KVSC 88.1 FM, remains a key collaborator, handling technical management, marketing, and main stage broadcasts with support from state legislative grants, according to a report from Ampers. The station has covered the festival's ups and downs for years, including that 2021 weather cancellation.
Getting In and Getting Around
Festival coordinator Janna Idzerda oversees the event, according to WJON's report. Admission runs $20 for a button that provides discounts at participating locations throughout the weekend, spanning venues including Pioneer Place on Fifth, Jules' Bistro, The Pickled Loon, White Horse, Gnarly Bard Theatre, MC's Dugout, and B-Side Indie Music Cafe. Organizers describe the festival's mission as supporting both local businesses and Central Minnesota musicians — the same twin goals that sparked its creation nearly a decade ago.
