Who Performed at the First Common Ground Festival?

When the Common Ground Festival debuted in July of 2000, it was a six-day event. The reason for organizing the festival was to pick up where the 20-year Capital City Riverfest left off in 1999.

A year before that, MSU’s popular Michigan Festival had come to an end after eleven years.

With monetary contributions from General Motors and the City of Lansing, Common Ground was on its way and would feature performances by the biggest music acts in the country.

Who Were the performers at the First Common Ground Festival?

That first year’s lineup was impressive: The Beach Boys, Charlie Daniels Band, Doobie Brothers, Martina McBride, Styx, Third Eye Blind, Vertical Horizon, Verve Pipe, and Joe Walsh.

What Other Artists Performed at Common Ground Over the Years?

In 2003, the festival was changed from six days to seven, and even more big stars kept comin’...
Joe Cocker
Commodores
Alice Cooper
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Morris Day and the Time
Earth, Wind & Fire
Peter Frampton
Grand Funk
Sammy Hagar
Hoobastank
Journey
Kansas
Kool & The Gang
John Legend
Huey Lewis & The News
Lyle Lovett
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Ludacris
Steve Miller Band
Ted Nugent
Parliament/Funkadelic
Alan Parsons Project
Bonnie Raitt
REO Speedwagon
Johnny Rivers
Smokey Robinson
Mitch Ryder
Snoop Dogg
Rick Springfield
Violent Femmes
War
Weird Al Yankovic
Zombies
ZZ Top

And yeah, there were more.
Those early years are still fondly remembered by many...

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