ANN ARBOR, MI – A local business owner is hoping to keep the Water Hill Music Fest going – at least in some fashion.

“It was a beautiful thing,” Scott Newell, owner of the Big City Small World Bakery, said of the popular festival that, for the last eight years on the first Sunday in May, has featured local musicians performing on porches and lawns throughout the Water Hill neighborhood just northwest of downtown Ann Arbor.

Longtime organizers Claire and Paul Tinkerhess recently announced plans to bring the festival to an end for personal reasons, but Newell is among many who don’t want to see it go.

“I’m just grateful for all of the people who supported Water Hill. It was just a fantastic thing,” he said. “To see a 16-year-old on a porch playing violin, there’s just something about that.”

Newell, who lives in the neighborhood, won support from the City Council Monday night, April 15 to close one block of Spring Street in front of his bakery from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, May 5 for an event called “Water Hill Music Fest Continued.”

“There’ll be music and it’ll more than likely be an amplified stage,” he said, indicating he hopes to line up a mix of local bands, including some teenagers, to perform and have lots of people come out.

“I always try to prioritize kids who haven’t really performed in public before to get on stage and do so,” he said.

His primary motivation in seeking a permit from the city to shut down the street, he said, is to hopefully inspire others to continue the Water Hill Music Fest tradition and once again have music erupting from porches and lawns throughout the neighborhood.

Newell said he’s hearing rumblings that some musicians still plan to perform in the neighborhood as they do every year, so he’s not alone in trying to keep the festival alive.

Claire and Paul Tinkerhess, who live in the neighborhood and also are downtown business owners, cited challenges with maintaining the “neighbor-to-neighbor, noncommercial character” of the festival when announcing last month they intended to bring it to an end.

They also said their decision stemmed from personal priorities and public safety concerns but didn’t elaborate.

“I never felt like the Water Hill Music Fest was overly commercialized,” said Newell, who has had bands perform outside his bakery during the festival in years past.

In addition to serving up snacks and beverages, Newell’s bakery also has served as a hub where festival-goers could pick up printed maps with performance schedules for the festival.

Council Member Ali Ramlawi, D-5th Ward, sponsored the resolution Monday night to approve the street closing for the May 5 event.

He called it an opportunity to have the community come together and celebrate spring, music and good times, and honor the spirit of the Water Hill Music Fest, while giving some youths an opportunity to perform live in a public setting for the first time.

Several other council members joined Ramlawi as co-sponsors before the resolution was approved unanimously.

“These kinds of things where the streets are closed and there’s people doing things, it’s just what makes Ann Arbor great,” said Council Member Jeff Hayner, D-1st Ward.

Newell expressed his thanks to city officials for helping to make the upcoming event happen.