The Appleseed Collective performs during the Water Hill Music Fest in Ann Arbor. The 2025 edition of the event, now called May Music Fest, takes place Sunday. MLive file photo.Melanie Maxwell | The Ann Arbor News
ANN ARBOR, MI — It’s been six years since the original organizers of the Water Hill Music Fest announced the popular Ann Arbor event was ending after an eight-year run.
But local musicians are keeping the tradition alive, performing on porches, lawns and driveways in the neighborhood just northwest of downtown the first Sunday in May each year.
Now called May Music Fest, the free event returns this Sunday, May 4, with musicians scheduled to perform throughout the afternoon for anyone who wants to stroll through and listen.
“It’s rather loosely organized,” said organizer Laurie Lounsbury, whose band She-Bop is performing.
Detailed programs and maps aren’t distributed like they were during the original festival’s heyday, she said, but they did get a music lineup listed in the Ann Arbor Observer.
“We’re just starting to get some momentum,” Lounsbury said, noting the festival was paused during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, but has made a comeback last few years.
“There were just some of us musicians who lived in the area and just really like doing that, so we wanted to keep it going in some way, shape or form,” she said.
Paul's Big Radio performs during the annual Water Hill music festival in Ann Arbor on May 5, 2019. The festival was originally canceled that year, but Big City Small World Bakery owner Scott Newell received permission to close Spring Street and encouraged community members to perform music throughout the neighborhood. MLive file photo. Mary Lewandowski
Sunday’s lineup includes the Glen Leven Band, whose sound ranges from traditional Irish music to rockabilly, bluegrass and roots rock, performing 2-3 p.m. at 411 Fountain St.
Deep Stream, another rock band, performs the same hour on the 500 block of Miller Avenue.
Indie Rock Royalty will play an eclectic mix of covers and originals 3-4 p.m. on the 500 block of Miller, while Rock Jones brings its vintage rock and dance jams the same hour on the 600 block of Robin Road.
The Dave McDaniel Band, a blues rock trio, performs 3:30-4:30 p.m. at 411 Fountain St., while Spark plays dance-friendly pop and rock covers at 611 Hiscock Street.
She-Bop, fronted by three female vocalists, performs 4-5 p.m. on the 500 block of Miller, while Slam Duncan plays contemporary jazz on the 600 block of Robin.
Corndaddy, original country rock through filters of power pop, bluegrass and British invasion, performs 4:30-5:30 p.m. at 611 Hiscock, followed by the Vicissitones, an instrumental rock quartet with a blend of originals and surf and spy music covers 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the same spot.
People listen to musicians perform during the annual Water Hill music festival in Ann Arbor on May 5, 2019. MLive file photo.Mary Lewandowski
Paul Tinkerhess, one of the original organizers of the Water Hill Music Fest, has separately announced plans for an all-day festival of music, drinks and food trucks from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Ann Arbor Distilling Co., 220 Felch St. Musicians to perform there include Dick Siegel, Chris Buhalis, Maddy Ringo, Vaega, Kat Steih, The Minor Pieces and Ukulele Slim.
The event at the distillery is intended to celebrate 11 years of SnowBuddy, the neighborhood’s all-volunteer sidewalk snowplow service, and is free and open to all, though donations to SnowBuddy are welcomed.
In all the years that music has been springing up throughout the Water Hill neighborhood the first Sunday in May, the weather has cooperated, Lounsbury said.
“It’s been kind of magical,” she said. “It either stops raining in time for the festival or it doesn’t rain.”
There’s a chance of rain in Sunday’s forecast, but most performance locations have covered porches so the music could go on if there’s a light rain at any point, she said.
She reached out to a fellow organizer about the possibility of a rain date, but her gut instinct is to just “keep our fingers crossed” and go for it Sunday, she said.
“It is Michigan and the weather can change,” she said.
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