Third Place Music Festival

Thank you, Wesley, so much for joining me today to talk about the Third Place Music Festival.

You just celebrated your seventh year?

Yes, that's right, and thanks for having me.

This is my, only my second year going since having moved here, but already one that I know is a very special event, talking to people who go to this regularly and, uh, talking to performers and how they feel about it.

I'm wondering if you can tell me a little bit about the idea or ethos concept behind the Third Place Music Festival, and if you want, kinda how it got started.

Oh, sure.

So I was a student at University of Michigan.

I'm a classically trained cellist, and I mostly play in concert halls when I was in grad school.

This was maybe eight years ago or so.

And I was invited to play on a one-off benefit recital at a local teahouse in downtown Ann Arbor, and I was like, "Yeah, okay.

I'll do this.

Whatever.

Sounds fun.

Low stakes." And I went, and it wasn't, like, my first time performing in a non-concert hall space, but maybe it was the first time I remember.

But I walk in, and it was at Teahouse.

Mm-hmm.

And it was, like, a little bit dark and, but it was, like, lit up.

It was almost out of like a, like a Studio Ghibli movie.

Like, it was just so magical, like, just, like, cozy vibes.

And it was a benefit concert for a hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, and everyone just took turns playing their little chamber groups.

And then when people weren't playing, they were drinking tea, and the vibes were high, and it was like Lisa, the business owner, was having a great time, and the performers just seemed like it was just, like, giving them life to perform in this space.

And the audience members and patrons of Teahouse were having a great time.

They had things to do.

They had tea to drink, mingling, and it was just this, like, electric feeling that it just felt so good.

It felt so good, and it almost enhanced the music, and everyone was really present.