Love of music shared across generations at 20th ‘Goodstock’ festival – MLive.com

September 9, 2023

FLINT, MI – Strumming guitars, playing the keyboard, drumming and singing their hearts out, a group of Flint youth performed original songs for the community on Saturday.

The opportunity to play their music on stage in front of a crowd came during the 20th anniversary of Goodstock, a Woodstock-inspired music festival hosted by The Good Beans Café in Flint on Saturday, Sept. 9.

Among the four groups who performed was the Flint Rocks Youth Empowerment (FRYE) Music Camp 2023.

Johnny Mason, of Flint, attended the festival Saturday to watch his son and daughter perform with FRYE. Much like his kids, Mason said he was involved with music growing up in Flint.

“I was in various bands and hanging out with my friends in the music scene,” Mason said. “So, actually I love seeing that some of the younger kids right now are actually hoping to kind of continue that movement.”

Mason’s daughter, Ktina Mason, 15, performed with three FRYE bands, Fast Food Fantoms, Tone Deaf and Ghosts and Ghouls. The kids performed songs they wrote and learned to play at the music camp earlier in the summer.

Ktina, who sings and plays the drums and ukulele, has been involved with FRYE for about five years.

“I’ve always loved music, it just helped me get through a lot of stuff in my life,” Ktina said. “It’s really just like relaxing, but also something fun you can do and just kind of get away from life in general sometimes.”

Ktina said playing at GOODSTOCK allows the campers share their music with a larger group of people in the area.

“I think it was cool because we got to connect with the community,” Ktina said.

Julie Hugunin, FRYE program coordinator, said this was the first time FRYE was invited to perform at GOODSTOCK. She added giving the kids a chance to perform outside of camp makes the experience legitimate.

“It’s not just being there for that one week … the fact that they’ve had another opportunity to perform the same thing, show their art another time – it’s huge,” Hugunin said. “One of our goals is to have more opportunities to perform. So, we’ve got a bucket list of other events in the city that we’d like to be at, but this was an excellent place to start.”

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