Stars & Stripes Festival Entertains, Draws Crowds Despite Heat and Storms

The fifth annual Stars & Stripes Festival in downtown Mount Clemens wrapped up on Monday after a weekend filled with fireworks, music, food and family fun.

The 4th of July festival set an opening day record with 200,000 people coming out for the entertainment and fireworks.

Over all attendance was down a bit with lower crowds on Saturday and Sunday due to the area's scorching high temperatures and nasty storms.

It is estimated that around 500,000 people visited the festival during its four day run.

The festival was spread out over a 1- square -mile of the city's downtown area and was filled with live music from four stages, a carnival and kid's area featuring a petting zoo, a large number of food stands and arts and crafts tents, and attractions ranging from BMX riders to the traveling Vietnam war memorial wall to celebrity meet and greets including One Life To Live's John-Paul Lavoisier and Dancing with the Stars' Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

Friday night featured Mount Clemen's annual fireworks display over the Clinton River which were almost cancelled due to a lack of funding.

The Wayne and Joan Webber Foundation and Huntington Bank stepped forward at the last minute to sponsor them.

Saturday and Sunday featured a laser light show for the first time that was reflected off a 40-foot-high screen near the former Macomb County building.

There is already talk to expand the laser show next year to cover the other stage areas.

Over its four days, the Stars & Stripes Festival provided a showcase for some of the area's most talented local bands including everyone from Hush to Atom Smash.

Friday night the National Budweiser Stage featured performances from Michigan's own Artificial Agent and Ty Stone and veteran rocker Ace Frehley.

Stone had the packed crowd singing along to his brand of southern rock including his current single "American Style".

KISS' Frehley pulled out a number of songs from his solo material with a mix of KISS classics including "Shout It Out Loud" and "Love Gun" which got the biggest reaction from the record-breaking crowd.

Saturday's main stage acts had to deal with a heat wave and storms that moved through the area a couple of times causing delays and sending the smaller crowd searching for cover.

Western Michigan's Wayland began the main stage show with a impressive set filled with a classic rock sound mixed with front man Mitch Arnold's powerful vocals.

Performances of their current single "Fire Down Below" and a fiery version of "Whole Lotta Love" had those who came out early for the show feeling lucky.

Popular local act The Muggs were up next and shared a solid set of their bluesy rock.

Taddy Porter hit the stage next and once again proved why they are one of rock's biggest rising stars.

The Oklahoma band has made Michigan its second home and each time they play here they continue to grow their fan base.

There were some technical problems during the set on Saturday forcing vocalist Andy Brewer to go guitarless for a bit but the band went with it breaking into versions of "Jumping Jack Flash" and "All Right Now".

The band also performed a acoustic set at local bar Montes.

Seventies glam rock band The Sweet's set was split into two due to the rain but the band didn't let the weather and the light crowd dampen their enthusiasm.

In fact, when the band burst into the popular "Ballroom Blitz" the other acts rushed the area to listen and dance along.

Alternative rockers Soul Asylum took to the stage next and front man Dave Pirner spent quite a bit of time being amazed at The Sweet's performance.

By this time the crowd started to fill up again and everyone was on their feet and into Soul Asylum's set that included popular moody songs "Waiting By the Phone" and "Runaway Train".

Pop rock band Smash Mouth closed out the evening with a set filled with the feel good music they are known for.

The prevalent party vibe fit in well with the always ready to celebrate Mount Clemens crowd and was reminiscent of the feeling Uncle Kracker produced with his own Stars & Stripes' set a couple of years ago.

The crowd who had endured the heat and rain but stuck around were more than ready to dance, drink it up and sing along as Smash Mouth moved through songs like "I'm A Believer", "Can't Get Enough of You Baby", "Walkin' On The Sun" and "All Star".

Throughout the weekend popular concert venues The Hayloft and The Emerald Theatre presented free music all day long and Saturday night popular local hip hop/rock group Critical Bill played a free show that featured a surprise appearance by The Sweet who hit the stage for a performance of "Highway to Hell" among others.

Critical Bill's set stuck to the songs their fans want to hear including "This Is Critical", "Favorite Drug, "My Suicide" and "The Ride".

Sunday local bands Tripp 'N' Dixie, The Infatuations, Bear Lake and Fifth Way opened the main stage.

This was followed by the interesting combination of headliners Tonic and Rick Springfield which oddly enough ended up working.

Alternative rockers Tonic even made an appearance during Springfield's set to sing "Wild Thing".

Tonic's set took listeners back to the nineties with their radio classics "Open Up Your Eyes", "If You Could Only See", "Take Me As I Am" and "You Wanted More".

Front man Emerson Hart took to the crowd for a bit while the rest of the band had a intense jam session.

By the time 80's rocker/General Hospital star Springfield took to the stage, the VIP area was packed in with the largely female crowd holding signs and gifts to throw on stage.

The minute he came out cameras were out and screams were in full force.

Springfield did not disappoint as he moved through a energetic performance that saw him joking with the crowd and even touching on his recent DUI.

Noticing one man in the audience with his arms folded, he came down and prompted him to sing with him and later brought a young girl up on stage to sing along with "Don't Talk To Strangers".

Springfield performed popular songs "Affair of the Heart" and "Love Somebody" and pulled out a impressive version of "Jet" but it was his performance of "Jessei's Girl" that the crowd was waiting for and was the highlight of the set.

The Stars & Stripes Festival finished things off on Monday with main stage performances from local bands Pistol Day Parade, Christina Chriss Band, S A R, Robin Horlock and Fleetwood's Back.