Live at Bent Paddle Brewing during the 2023 Homegrown Music Festival, Steve Solkela and Kaylee Matuszak perform their take on the 2006 hit song “Hips Don’t Lie,” written and originally performed by Shakira and Wyclef Jean.
The 25th annual Homegrown Music Festival is upon us. All the specifics are in a 116-page Field Guide available around town or online as a PDF. The most accurate version of the schedule is always at duluthhomegrown.org/schedule. And this here primer consists of the random last-minute bulletins that always spring up.
Members of Ballyhoo performing at the inaugural Homegrown Music Festival in 1999. (Photo courtesy Leon Rohrbaugh; photographer unknown)
On the eve of the 25th annual Homegrown Music Festival we take a look at every single locatable image from the first Homegrown in 1999. It was a few years before digital photography became a common thing, a few years before social media existed, and a few years before Homegrown became one of the most photographed events in Duluth.
The 2023 Homegrown Music Festival runs April 30 to May 7, and the annual Field Guide for the event was trucked into Duluth this morning. Piles of them will be available at local music venues within the coming days.
This year’s festival features 171 acts at 36 venues over the course of eight days.
Photographer Kip Praslowicz gets all artsy with this video showcasing Homegrown Music Festival kickball athleticism.
Rock and roll is complicated. But the Homegrown Music Festival made it back after two years of online events during the pandemic. I took a bunch of photos and tossed the best of them into a slideshow. I made it to 58 acts, but that means I missed 131.
The song featured here is by Cars & Trucks from the 2013 album Theatre Stardusk. The band returned from a lengthy hiatus to perform a surprise popup at this year’s festival.
Select Instagram images from day eight of the Homegrown Music Festival and the annual Run, Smelt, Run! Parade and Party.
Select Instagram images from day seven of the Homegrown Music Festival.
In an Instagram and TikTok world, it’s hard to ask anyone to edit and crop their photos during the hubbub of Homegrown. But now that things are winding down, if you’ve got any great shots that would fit that weird horizontal space at the top of PDD, send ’em our way, we’ll add them to the collection for next year.
The chant is heard sporadically throughout the annual Homegrown Music Festival Kickball Classic. “MVP. MVP. MVP.”
Select Instagram images from day six of the Homegrown Music Festival.
