There have been multiband music showcases in Cincinnati before - musicians banding together in hopes of getting noticed by the national music industry. But it was the MidPoint Music Festival that got the attention of city government and the corporate world.

MidPoint's articulate organizers, Sean Rhiney and Bill Donabedian, both in their early 30s, brought Cincinnati City Council members and Mayor Charlie Luken on board, in what was the first official recognition of the Tristate's thriving alt-rock scene.

For a downtown reeling from the soured economy, racial unrest and reams of bad publicity, MidPoint was just what the doctor ordered. That would be Dr. Richard Florida, a professor of economic development at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University and author of The Rise of the Creative Class. The book cites Seattle and Austin as models of urban centers fueled by a young, music-and-technology-oriented "creative class."

Cincinnati had seen such a revival in the early '90s with the grassroots movement of the Main Street Entertainment District, all of it done with little or no official aid.

But with help from the city and some much-needed corporate sponsorship, MidPoint drew 10,000 people over three days and gave the city some much-needed good press.

The 2003 MidPoint should be better, as Cincinnati's powers have changed their tune - "We rebuilt this city on rock `n' roll."