Since its inception in 2019, the Rochester Thaw Music Festival has been melting the musical hearts and faces of both Rochester locals and a wider array of Midwesterners. Celebrating its 5th anniversary on March 21st from 2 PM – Midnight, the Rochester Thaw Music Festival will include seven venues and 30 bands and has a growing reputation as one of the region’s most-loved music festivals.
“I always think that music fests are a wonderful way to showcase a city,” says festival director and founder Nick Novotny. “This community-built festival is a fun way to get to know the musicians from that community and the small businesses that make it very unique.”
After its 2019 debut at The Castle, the Thaw Fest was forced to take a few years off due to the pandemic, but it came back stronger than ever in 2023, partnering with My Town My Music and expanding into a multi-venue music fest, inviting bands and festival goers to explore Rochester’s downtown.
This year, the Rochester Thaw Music Festival will include music that ranges from newgrass and jazz to hip-hop and alternative rock. The festival is featuring sets by some standout regional headliners, including Gully Boys, Nur-D, and Them Coulee Boys. The festival also offers sets from local Rochester favorites like Clay Fulton & The Lost Forty, Als Fona, and Destiny Boyum. Novotny says the festival is committed to making sure that a third of its performers are local bands. He explains that this gives those performers a larger platform for their music and encourages crosspollination between local and visiting bands.
“The one thing we hear almost every year is that people are surprised at how vibrant the music community is here in Rochester,” says Novotny. “That’s from people who are local who aren’t as tuned into the scene and discovering it through the festival, as well as from our out-of-town guests and bands. I hear all the time, ‘I didn’t know there were this many music fans here, I didn’t know there were so many awesome venues, I didn’t know there were so many Rochester bands.’”
Novotny says that the festival will draw about 1,000 people to Rochester’s downtown. It’s taken him and the My Town My Music team, including Dustin Hart, Bekkie Hart, Jonny Yucuis, Corrie Strommen, and Clay Fulton, about eight months of planning to get ready for the 2026 Thaw Festival. Novotny says that his philosophy as festival director is that the fest should “keep growing up” and “raising the caliber of bands” that perform each year. This year, about 260 different bands applied to be performers in the fest, so there was a really large pool of talent to draw from.
For its 5th anniversary, the Thaw Fest is pulling out all the stops and including some nods to past years. For example, Minnesotan artist Jillian Rae is returning for the
first time after being a performer at the very first 2019 festival. Rae is known as a triple threat with her vocals, fiddle playing, and songwriting. Though Rae has done stints as a side woman for the likes of the Brass Kings and the Okee Dokee Brothers and got her start with folk and country bands, her more recent music has leaned into pop and rock, and she’s released several solo albums like “I Can’t Be the One You Want Me to Be.”
Since 2023, the Thaw fest has included performances in six venues in a roughly three-block area in Downtown Rochester. The venues include the Historic Chateau Theatre, Treedome, Café Steam, LC’s Venue, Artheads Emporium, and Bleu Duck Kitchen. This year, the festival has added a seventh venue: 1928 Cocktails and Bites.
The Thaw fest prides itself on working with local production companies like Northern Sun Productions and local graphic artists like Maggie Panneta. Overall, Novotny says that the festival strives to make a unique experience where fest attendees and visiting bands alike can explore the heart of Rochester and discover both new music and new businesses.
The Rochester Thaw Music Festival is also hosting a preparty at Thesis Beer Project on Friday, March 21st, with Faith Boblett and Honeygirl. In addition, they’ll host an afterparty at Bleu Duck Kitchen on the day of the fest with DJ AleXplain.
More details, including how to buy tickets which range in price from early bird tickets at $55 to tier three tickets at $80, and the full schedule for the festival taking place from 2 PM – Midnight on Saturday, March 21st, can be found at https://www.mytownmymusic.com/rochester-thaw-music-festival.
Novotny says that local business owners have supported the festival from the beginning and have always been willing to jump in with whatever’s needed. “This fest is so inherently communal,” says Novotny. “I think that’s the important part about it. You get that concentrated flavor of what the community is like.”
If You Go:
What: The Rochester Thaw Music Festival featuring 30 bands
When: Saturday, March 21st, 2 PM – Midnight
Where: Seven venues in Downtown Rochester
Ticketing, Maps, and Information: https://www.mytownmymusic.com/rochester-thaw-music-festival
