Steel Bridge Songfest

The Steel Bridge Songfest is an annual collaborative songwriting and performance festival, the only event of its kind in the world. Produced by Citizens For Our Bridge DBA Steel Bridge Creative Foundation and organized by musicians with help from hundreds of volunteers (mostly musicians themselves), the four-day, three night extravaganza combines a week-long songwriting and recording marathon, outdoor concerts, theater performances, and a pub crawl.

Steel Bridge Songfest raises local, state and national awareness of the Michigan Street Bridge through original songs written and inspired by the bridge. The Songfest and CD compilations helped to promote, build and maintain a first-of-its-kind “Michigan Street Bridge Fund” held by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington DC (discontinued since the bridge has been saved) and continue to help finance the event.

The state-owned, historic Sturgeon Bay (Michigan Street Memorial) bridge, is nationally significant not only for its design but also for the unique upper bascule section, one of only two examples existing in the United States. It is also a Veterans' Memorial. Citizens for Our Bridge has been active in the preservation effort since 1996 and was instrumental in having the structure placed the Wisconsin Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places.