When Sam Brown was stationed in Winona as an AmeriCorps volunteer, he saw potential for something like South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Winona already had three colleges and a robust art scene. Thus in 2009 Brown launched Mid West Music Fest as a multi-stage, multi-genre music event to showcase upper Midwest performers acts playing original music. In 2014 he registered the festival as an\ a nonprofit corporation and and added an educational component. In 2016 he added a companion weekend 30 miles downriver in La Crosse. In 2018 Brown created a mid-winter event, Big Turn Music Fest, in his native Red Wing, Minnesota, 60 miles upriver from Winona. For 2020 two weekends were planned for Winona and LaCrosse on either end of summer with more than 100 acts a dozen stages between the two historic cities. New educational initiatives included original songwriting and mental health for musicians. Teen Press was a new journalism project for teenage writers. Then came the coronavirus pandemic. Brown switched as much of the program online as possible in a desperate attempt to keep it going.