A festival of music

• Seth Duin

The first Hastings Music Festival was held Sunday at the Little Log House Pioneer Village south of Hastings. Above, Seth Duin, a guitar player with the band The Stalls performs.
• Fans at the music festival

These three fans were among the 550 ticket-buyers in attendance at Sunday’s Hastings Music Festival at the Little Log House Pioneer Village. The Stalls are pictured on stage.
• Dan Friese

Dan Friese plays guitar and sings for the band Pastor Pollack.
• Ryan Farber

Ryan Farber plays an acoustic show to begin the Hastings Music Festival.

Talk about it

Local residents turned out in force, Mother Nature went along with the program, and as a result, Hastings Family Service has an approximately $12,000 donation coming its way.

The first Hastings Music Festival held Sunday at the Little Log House Pioneer Village was a great success and raised more money than its organizers ever expected.

“When you’re doing charity like this, it’s always a 100 percent win,” organizer Nick Langley said.

Through the sales of about 550 tickets, silent auction items donated by local businesses, and food and beverages, the event raised about $12,000 for Hastings Family Service, which by all accounts is a large number for an event in its first year.

“Wow, that is just fabulous,” Hastings Family Service Director Chris Koop said after hearing the total number for the first time Tuesday morning.

She said the money will be used in the food shelf, which is often in need of extra food and funding in the summer months.

“Typically with kids home from school, we tend to see a jump in the number of people we serve,” Koop said.

She said the event overall and the money raised are good examples of what makes the Hastings community special.

Langley said he wanted to express his thanks to community members who attended the event and all the businesses that contributed to it, especially Steve and Sylvia Bauer from the Little Log House Pioneer Village, who donated the use of their property for the event, and Chad Pechacek of Allied Audio, who supplied all the audio equipment and ran the sound board.

With the event now behind him and the totals being tallied Monday morning, Langley was already looking toward next year’s Hastings Music Festival. He said he hopes to make the event bigger, longer, and maybe feature a big-name band from the Twin Cities.

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