By Elmer Ploetz
Editor-in-Chief

(Photo above: From the DJ tent in the Refringe area at Music Is Art)

I’ve always described Music Is Art as a family reunion kind of event.

It’s where I get to see many of my old friends, and the musician and artist community all come together for one day to raise money for MIA’s mission: to support Western New York’s music community — particularly through putting instruments into the hands of students in our schools (although the mission has grown beyond that).

I’ve also viewed it as a gathering of the tribes. My tribes. Punks. Storytellers. Americana fans. Artists.

But as I worked the Buffalo Hive table in the Refringe area of MIA Saturday (Sept. 21, 2024), it occurred to me how much bigger it is than that.

Yes, it’s a place where friends reconvene every year. It probably has more musicians and artists coming together than any other event in the region.

But the bigger thing may be that it is introducing those artists and musicians to the general public that may not otherwise ever consider seeking them out. It’s a place where the people flying their freak flag and those who live a more conventional lifestyle walk down the same sidewalks. People are watching and hearing everything from conventional Americana and blues to hip hop to Cult Mother doing its freaked out take on the “Wizard of Oz” (which I wish I had been able to stay for). They’re walking by the tent as the Sonic Wranglers mix electronics, drums and videos in a blast of sound that insists it is going to grab their attention (Sonic Wranglers are in the video twice because I caught them twice when I got a chance to walk the grounds).

It’s the meeting place that this community needs, where you never know what you might find … and it happens once every year.

This year the festival was blessed with great weather, which was fortunate with its move to Terminal B and the Outer Harbor from RiverWorks. The site was more expansive and the audio bleed between stages was a lot less (which is important when you have 19 stages), but the risk of weather raining on the parade is always present. With the greater area it feels less crowded, but I think it made it harder to randomly run into acquaintances. That’s the tradeoff.

It was a great opportunity for myself and two of our video interns (Olivia Fullerton and Arin Russell) to engage with the public and to capture some parts of the general scene. My video is here today; look for theirs later this week.

Thanks to Curt Rotterdam for inviting The Buffalo Hive to join the Refringe section of Music Is Art and making things as easy as possible. We felt right at home across the sidewalk from Brian Milbrand and the Cult Mother table. He had us almost converted to the worship of Golgonia by the end of the day.

And thanks, of course, to MIA founder Robby Takac, the MIA staff and its army of volunteers. I’m already looking forward to next year.