Flint's Carriage Town neighborhood turns into an open-air stage tomorrow as the Goodstock festival returns to the north lawn of Good Beans Cafe for a free, family-friendly celebration running from 3 to 9 p.m. The lineup stretches from a poet's opening reading to a two-hour headlining set from a local four-piece group, with youth music camp bands, a student performing arts showcase, food trucks and artisan vendors filling out the afternoon and evening.
According to MLive, the festival opens at 3 p.m. with a performance by poet and writer Carolyn Denise, a Carriage Town resident, before moving into an afternoon of music, food and craft vendors. Good Beans Cafe, the host venue, sits at 328 N. Grand Traverse St. and was opened in March 2000 by owner Ken Van Wagoner as one of Flint's first European-style coffee houses, according to Pride Source.
Van Wagoner, per the MLive report, described Goodstock as a gathering before summer ends and said the sponsorship funding behind it is what makes the event possible. He also noted that local talent has always been central to the festival's format, a tradition on display since the cafe first hosted a Woodstock-inspired one-day music festival on September 9, 2023, and continued when Goodstock marked its 20th year that same year with art, food and drinks sold across the lawn.
Youth Bands Take the Stage After a Five-Day Camp
The afternoon includes performances from the Flint Rocks Youth Empowerment Music Camp, known as FRYE, which serves kids ages 10 to 17 and performs songs at 4 p.m. The camp formed six new bands whose songs were created and learned during a five-day music camp, according to the same MLive account, and the program was made available for free through community sponsors and donors.
Julie Hugunin, program coordinator for the music camp, said the bands will perform the same program at Goodstock that they performed at an earlier Fryeday concert, where the groups debuted an original song. FRYE bands also performed original songs at Goodstock in 2023, continuing a pattern of youth acts returning to the festival stage year after year.
Student Showcase and a Two-Hour Headlining Set
At 5:15 p.m., the Flint School of Performing Arts presents a student showcase that includes ensemble pieces from musical theatre summer camp participants. The school is operated by the Flint Institute of Music, which stands as Michigan's largest community arts school, serving more than 3,500 students annually, according to Cause IQ; the institute also runs the Flint Symphony Orchestra and Flint Repertory Theatre.
The night's headliner, Thistle Groove Collective, takes the stage for a two-hour set beginning at 6:45 p.m. The four-piece group is made up of Julie Hugunin, Reichlin Small, Nick Calandro and Dan Gerics, and performs regularly at venues throughout Greater Mid-Michigan, per MLive.
Food, Drinks and Local Vendors Round Out the Lawn
Food vendors this year include Yvette's Tacos, The Local Grocer and Paula's Ice Cream Truck, alongside art vendors selling their own creations across the lawn. The Local Grocer opened its storefront at 601 Martin Luther King Ave. in December 2015 after starting as a community farm initiative that cultivates produce on a nine-acre plot in nearby Beecher, according to MSU Extension.
Good Beans Cafe itself will offer espresso beverages and non-coffee drinks throughout the festival. The cafe's interior features a historic 39-foot Art Deco wooden bar once installed in the basement of Flint's Capitol Theatre before being relocated to the coffee shop, as reported by East Village Magazine. At last year's festival, the lineup featured local blues act Larry B and The Boomers alongside student performers, artisans and vendor booths selling dry ice-cooled root beer and artisan crafts, the same outlet noted.
A Historic Neighborhood Hosts the Celebration
Goodstock takes place in Carriage Town, a neighborhood named for its history as the horse-drawn carriage manufacturing capital of the U.S. and the site where Billy Durant founded General Motors in 1908, according to the Carriage Town Historic Neighborhood Association. The district was designated historic to preserve structures built for automotive and carriage industry workers, though it has also faced planning pressures over the years, including a municipal boundary review that once considered shrinking the historic district by 10 blocks to accommodate institutional expansions, per Michigan Public.
Attendees are encouraged to bring chairs or a blanket, and parking for the free event is also free. The Greater Flint Arts Council is sponsoring Goodstock through its Parade of Festivals program, funded by a grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to support community art events across Genesee County. Arts education and youth performing programs across Flint, including groups like FRYE, are further bolstered by public funding from the voter-approved Genesee County Arts Education and Cultural Enrichment Millage.
