Twin Ports Community Doubles Support For ‘Musical Bingo’ & Local Artists

SUPERIOR, Wis. — Bingo fanatics, roughly 170 of them, joined together Thursday night at Barker’s Island Inn to support free community music by playing Musical Bingo.

FOX 21’s Dan Hanger called the song titles at Siggy’s Musical Garden, which is an organization that supports local music and artists behind it. Songs were provided by the Mackie Brothers, a rock group from Duluth.

Musical Bingo has doubled in attendance every year and continues to grow, according to Siggy’s  Musical Garden co-founder Cheri Finkbeiner. The name of the non-profit is a reference to Finkbeiner’s grandmother, Sigrid Johnson.  Our Dan Hanger met Sigrid at the Thirsty Pagan and nicknamed her “Siggy.” And that is how Siggy became.

“My grandmother loved to share live music with the people that she was around,” Finkbeiner said. “So we wanted to surround people with live music as well.” Siggy’s granddaughter says she was surrounded by music until her last days.

Click the video below for more from Hanger’s interview during the 5:30 p.m. newscast.

“Joe and Sarah of Similar Dogs played for her at her bedside up until a week before she passed away. It was a pretty memorable experience,” Finkbeiner said.

Finkbeiner said she never imagined the musical bingo fundraiser would become this popular.

One of the event’s supported by the fundraiser is Superior Porchfest, where musicians play on porches all over town to show off their talents and help build that sense of community. Money raised from Musical Bingo goes back to artists, like those who put on Porchfest.