MERIDIAN, Idaho — If you were around Kleiner Park today, you might've heard the music.
From 9 am-9 pm, there is a free music festival at the park in Meridian. Organizers Alaric Radio and Kraken Entertainment put it together to spread music to the community.
Several local bands performed at the festival, and there were vendors and food trucks for everyone at the festival.
There were also multiple skateboarding groups skating and doing tricks around the stage.
Jake Santiago, who runs Alaric Radio, says it was super important for the event to be free.
“I'm a little tired of hearing people getting nickeled and dimed for everything they do in life," Santiago said. "A chicken sandwich costs about 15 bucks nowadays, so we put together this free show, we spent four and a half months on it. This is what we do to support the local scene.”
Santiago, a veteran, has been in and out of the hospital this year and the support of the local music scene helped him a lot.
“It just really brought me up, and going to the concerts is what does it for me. Hearing their heart in their stage performance is key. And that’s why I do what I do.”
One of the local bands was Whiskey Mountain. They formed out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I started recording out in the garage, playing my drums more," said the band's lead singer, Randy King. "My wife was like ‘when this is all over you’re going to be in a band, you know that right?’ and I was like no, no, no. Here we are, so she was right.”
He and Santiago have been friends for a while. He says that he hopes the festival continues to grow.
“Any time you do a first-time thing, people are like what is it, what’s going to go on right. You still got a decent crowd here, but success for me is next year when we do this, it’s gonna look like this.”
For more information on the event visit Alaric Radio's website.
