Music and Arts Festival in Missoula

River City Roots Festival Hits Downtown

By Kerry McMannis, 9-16-06

Downtown Missoula hosts the first annual River City Roots Festival today. The festival will unfold at multiple locations throughout the downtown area highlighting some of the city's new attractions such as the Missoula Art Museum and Brennan’s Wave. Its promoters are hoping it will become the biggest street festival Western Montana has ever seen.

Portions of West Main St. and Ryman St. will be closed to make room for a live music stage, food booths, a juried art show and other family friendly events. The John Cowan Band is headlining the music line up that includes Missoula bands such as Broken Valley Road Show. Music begins at noon.

It all kicks off at 9:00 a.m. with the River City Roots Run, a 5k fun walk/run along Missoula’s river trail system. For a complete schedule and map of events check out the festival's website here.

The River City Roots Festival's roots are in Johnson City, Tennessee. Ellen Buchanan helped start a similar festival there which became a huge success for the city of around 60,000. When Buchanan came to Missoula she saw the perfect opportunity to create a western version of the street festival. She got the interest of the Missoula Downtown Association and support grew from there.

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