[1] Founded in 2005 by musician Pat MacDonald the event began as part of a grass-roots campaign to restore a historic bridge.
The festival features a week-long collaborative songwriting workshop (called the Construction Zone) where participants write songs inspired by the bridge.
It connects Wisconsin State Highway 57 to the Third Avenue business district, carrying motor and foot traffic over the Sturgeon Bay Shipping Canal.
In 1995, continuous remote monitoring by Northwestern University's Infrastructure Technology Institute detected new cracks in the track casting, later confirmed by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT).
To raise funds to carry out the plan, CFOB founder Christie Weber and her brother, musician Pat MacDonald, organized a small music festival.