It’s Friday afternoon, my bed is covered in clothes, and I’m asking myself a familiar question: What should I wear? I’m in the midst of packing for Mid West Music Fest, a two-day music festival in Winona, Minn., where I’m performing with my band Rabeca.

Mid West Music Fest has been running since 2010, and this is the first year since the start of the pandemic that the fest is back at full capacity. Rabeca is playing on Sat., Apr. 30 at Acoustic Cafe, one of the eight venues around downtown Winona that will collectively host more than 70 acts throughout the weekend. (Find more performance photos from the weekend.)

There are five of us in Rabeca: me (guitar and vocals), Anna (saxophone and vocals), David (bass), Satchel (drums), and Alex (keyboards and vocals). We’ve been playing together for three years, writing improvisation-heavy songs that draw as much from our close-knit relationships as our common love of food. We haven’t played a festival since February 2020, and I’m eager to get away for the weekend with my pals in Rabooboo (as Anna has affectionately nicknamed our band).

Anna picks me up just after 5 p.m., and we start the two-hour drive from Minneapolis to Winona. Over the years Anna has driven me to and from countless Rabeca gigs, always accompanied by heartfelt car chats. 

About halfway through our drive along the Mississippi, it starts to rain. I downloaded the MWMF app earlier, and it’s now sending me notifications that shows at the outdoor Levee Park stage are being delayed and/or canceled due to the weather. A strip of rubber flies loose from Anna’s windshield wiper and begins flapping in the breeze! But we persist.

At 7:30 we arrive at our Airbnb. It’s a cozy eggshell blue one-story house 10 minutes outside of downtown Winona. (I’m amazed to find it outfitted with a fish tank, upright piano, and a 12-string guitar in the living room!)

David meets us at the Airbnb, and the three of us call a Lyft into Winona. After satiating ourselves with pizza and beer at Sliced Winona, we walk to Levee Park to grab our wristbands. MWMF volunteers are outfitted in blue ponchos, but are still in good spirits. 

We walk to the other end of the fest in hopes of catching Kiss the Tiger at No Name Bar, but sadly miss their set. On the walk, we hear the horn lines and harmonies of NATL PARK SRVC floating from Peter’s Biergarten. 

I pull out the MWMF app to direct us to Island City Brewing for HALEY’s set. I am notoriously bad at directions, but thankfully the app includes an easy-to-read map — plus, the eight venues are at most a handful of blocks from each other. When we arrive at Island City, the rain has stopped! But the sun is down and it’s feeling brisk. I sip on my beer and bounce to keep warm during sound check.

Around 10:30, HALEY kicks off her set. “Hometown goes wherever you go,” she sings under the tent’s string lights. The song feels fitting for my first night in a town that’s new to me, but where, every few minutes, someone in our group bumps into an old friend or a familiar face from the Minnesota music scene.

By half past 11, our crew is getting sleepy and ready to turn in for the night. But on this busy night in a city of 27,000, our ride options are slim. The rain is picking up, and five of us huddle inside the brewery, all of us furiously ordering rideshares with no luck as Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back” drifts from the speakers. After almost thirty minutes of no success (but plenty of 2000s throwbacks), our spirits are dwindling. Two of our phones have died. David offers to run back to the Airbnb, grab the car, and drive back to pick us up. (It’s only four miles in the rain!) But two Lyft drivers come to our rescue! We make it back to the Airbnb and cap off the night with a few rounds of the card game “What do You Meme?”

After a late night, we sleep in on Saturday morning. Outside, it’s still gray and damp. We were considering going on the MWMF guided hike in the morning, but opt to catch some extra sleep and stay out of the rain. David cooks us breakfast potatoes and eggs. 

The festival’s rain contingency plan is in full force: shows at the fest’s two outdoor venues, Levee Park and Peter’s Biergarten, have moved indoors, requiring some reshuffling of the lineup.

Around 1 p.m., we head to the coffee shop Blooming Grounds, also one of MWMF’s venues. It’s buzzing with people ordering food and drinks from the impressively robust menu (they have just about every flavor of syrup you could want). We sit outside and run into our friend Emily, who is performing with her band Dark Bunny at Blooming Grounds later in the afternoon.

We walk to the thrift store Grace Place, where we find an incredible vintage book called “The New Chronicles of Rebecca.” (Inspiration for the next album?) Anna finds a pair of fuschia earrings that perfectly match the top she’s performing in tonight!

Our bandmate Alex joins us at the Airbnb to get ready for our performance and load up the car with our instruments. I change into an incredible ‘70s-inspired jumpsuit that I found last weekend at a vintage store, complete with flared legs, a lace-up front, and mismatched florals. 

Back at Blooming Grounds, we see Dark Bunny perform, and the coffee shop is even more packed than it was this morning. People are still milling near the counter to order food and drinks, and on the other side of the cafe a crowd gathers in front of the stage.

We walk around the corner to Acoustic Cafe, where we’re performing in a few hours. Hannah Lou Woods is onstage, singing and accompanying herself on piano, acoustic, and electric guitar. Mike Kota is up next.

After Mike Kota’s set, we start setting up our instruments. As the venue’s name suggests, Acoustic Cafe’s stage wasn’t designed for a full drum kit and a five-piece band. We set up Satchel’s drums on one side of the stage and Alex’s keyboard on the other, with David, Anna, and I in front.

I’m feeling more nervous for a show than I have in a while. Last night our Lyft driver asked us, “Do you get nervous to play shows?” We all said, “Not really — we don’t get nearly as nervous as we used to!” But as we sound check and get ready to start our set, I’m feeling more restless than I expected.

We kick off our set with the song “Too Much.” Its sharp, staccato melody and upbeat tempo match my slightly frenetic energy. Folks watch from their seats at the cafe’s tables. Alex introduces our band to the audience by inviting them to spell out “R-A-B-E-C-A!”

After our set, we stick around to see Freaque’s performance. We’ve performed with Freaque a handful of times, and each time Gabriel unites a unique lineup of musicians to accompany him. Tonight it’s a quartet: Gabe singing and playing keyboards, plus two guitarists and a bassist. We consider only staying for a few songs to try to catch another show, but we’re mesmerized by Freaque’s intimate, haunting songs and can’t peel ourselves away.

It’s hard to decide what shows to go see, since there are so many great bands playing across the festival! Anna, Alex, and I walk to Island City Brewing. We sit outside and sip our beers as Graveyard Club cover the Cranberries’ classic “Linger.” Later in the evening we end up at Eagles Club to see Humbird’s set.

Once again, I get caught up in watching Humbird play, and I let go of some of my pent-up energy from the day. The four musicians create winding songs that capture the vastness, magic, and mundaneness of life in the Midwest. I sway along with the other dozens of folks in the room — some standing, and some sitting on the floor in front of the stage. Singer Siri Undlin closes the set by dedicating a song to Nathaniel Nelson, one of the festival’s creative directors, whose father passed away just the day before. She begins by repeating the words “On the day we are together again,” and I feel a lump forming in my throat. 

On Sunday morning, we load up our cars and begin driving through the tree-scattered bluffs that line the Mississippi River back to the Twin Cities. I’m tired from only having gotten a few hours of sleep, but I’m full of gratitude for my bandmates, the festival’s performers, attendees, volunteers, and many dedicated folks who made this weekend happen.

I can be a relentless planner. Throughout the weekend, I glanced at the festival’s lineup in hopes of making it to every performance on my list. But many of my favorite moments were shows that we stumbled on by chance — not to mention the fact that the lineup shifted around the weekend’s stormy weather. 

When my bandmates and I play together in Rabeca, certain moments of our songs are planned out; Anna, Alex, and I will link up for three-part vocal harmonies, or Satchel will cue us into the next section of a song with a drum fill. But in other moments, we’re directionless, just relying on each others’ instincts and our own active listening to guide us forward. That messy uncertainty is where so much of our band’s joy comes from — letting go of your plan, and following your bandmates wherever they go.

Colleen Cowie plays guitar and sings in Rabeca. Keep up with Rabeca on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.