Listeners Enjoy Smooth Sounds of Music Festival

The warm sounds of Caribbean music drifted from Windermere Point as the Fourth Annual Mackinac Island Music Festival got underway early Tuesday afternoon, August 21. Alumni of the Petoskey Steel Drum Band drew listeners before their first song was finished. Battling winds of more than 20 miles per hour by clipping music pages to their stands, the trio was quickly relocated from the shoreline to a nearby street side. Horse traffic then was rerouted for the hour-long concert, owing to concerns that the unfamiliar sounds might be unsettling to the Island's second main form of transportation. One enthusiastic listener, Ronald Hoard (right), 10, of Coldwater, helped the trio by playing air drums. The Music Festival is sponsored by the Mackinac Island Arts Council and Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau, with events running through Thursday, August 23. Playing the drum set is Matt Murphy (left), with Kathleen Ryan on lead drum, and Tracy Thompson on double seconds. The group was a last-minute replacement for the St. Ignace Saints of Steel Drum Band, which was unable to make the concert.