From August 1987 to 1997, Michigan State University hosted the Michigan Festival on the University’s campus in East Lansing. Organized as part of Michigan’s sesquicentennial celebration, the event was geared toward providing affordable, high-quality entertainment to the people of greater Lansing and Michigan as a whole. Ciesa Design supported the festival by creating unique logos each year from 1991-1993.
The Michigan Festival was a 10-day event emphasizing Michigan’s heritage. The annual festival featured a variety of bands and artists from local to national and international talent. Recognizable names of performers that appeared on “Oldsmobile Main Stages” at MSU during these festivals include: Dolly Parton, Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, REO Speedwagon, Ray Charles, Reba McEntire, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Earth Wind & Fire, Hootie & the Blowfish, Johnny Cash, The Doobie Brothers, Goo Goo Dolls, KC and the Sunshine Band, Hall and Oates, Little Richard, Steve Miller Band, Sheryl Crow, Tammy Wynette, Foreigner and many, many more!
Additionally, the festival would incorporate other important local events including the MSU Museum Festival of Michigan Folklife, the Children’s Festival, the Michigan Festival Writers Day, the Michigan Festival of Foods and the Michigan State University American Indian Heritage Pow Wow. Folklife exhibits, daytime stages and dancing people would fill the streets surrounding multiple stages and parades. Certain years of the festival even boasted beach parties, including volleyball tournaments and sand castle-building contests! All 10 days of festival events could be accessed for one low admission fee of around $20, often as low as $15.
For the 10 years it ran, the Michigan Festival would have attendance numbers breach three million with hundreds of performers. In 1997 attendance was down, and in 1998 the event was canceled after presale goals were not met. The event declared bankruptcy, and 2 years later the Common Ground Music Festival would fill the gap that the Michigan Festival left behind.