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I wish I could say I remember the first year of the MidPoint Music Festival vividly, but, after attending the festival each of the six previous years, they all start bleed together.

I do remember a lot about that first MPMF year, though. The festival was not yet centrally located in Over-the-Rhine, so I had to cross the river a few times, to see bands at the Madison Theater or Newport on the Levee. I remember thinking, “This would be better if everything was in one place.” The following year, the Main Street Entertainment District inherited the festival.

In that second year, Main Street was still relatively vibrant as a club district. Having lived on Main for several years, I loved the live music bars on the strip, including Neon’s and The Overflow (I’m a “live music guy,” not really a dance club fan). It seemed the perfect fit for MidPoint.

The fest’s founders Sean Rhiney and Bill Donabedian did a great job procuring venues over the years, but Main Street’s entertainment options have been in a constant flux more recently. By the end of their run, Rhiney and Donabedian were practically building venues for the festival, renting out empty rooms in the area and making them MidPoint-ready (with sound systems installed and beer ready to flow). The past couple of years, whenever I would see Rhiney, he would mention that they’d about had it with the juggling and were ready to move the festival to another neighborhood or even another city.

I’m glad that they decided to give CityBeat a shot at running MidPoint and keeping it mostly downtown. The festival is a crown-jewel event in the area and this year we’re all hoping – for the benefit of the city, the city’s music scene and the city’s music fans – to take it to the next level. We understand the founders’ frustrations — we haven’t had to build any venues, but several club owners downtown have hemmed and hawed about hosting showcases. Hopefully, the success of the fest this year will have more people eager to participate next time

And hopefully it will boost the energy level of Main Street, which seems to be gradually becoming its old self again. The festival will be spread all over downtown this year (not just the Main St. area), giving young music lovers a great reason to hit the city’s center for some good times.

As much as MidPoint has been “all about the music,” an ulterior motive has always been to help our sometimes beleaguered downtown area be the kind of entertainment destination spot it has long deserved to be.