Homegrown Music Festival
Encyclopedia
The Homegrown Music Festival is Duluth, Minnesota
's annual showcase of local bands. The event has grown from featuring 10 acts in 1999 to 156 in 2011. It happens every year during the first week of May.
Notable acts that have performed in the festival include: Low, Trampled By Turtles
, Charlie Parr
, Retribution Gospel Choir
, the Dames, the Alrights, the Black Labels, the Keep Aways
, Giljunko, Bone Appetit, the Black Eyed Snakes
and Haley Bonar
.
The event was originally a for-profit venture, but became a nonprofit in 2006 and is now run by a steering committee. The Bridge Syndicate is its fiscal agent. Shana David-Massett is the festival director.
For Lunt's 30th birthday, he invited five acts to play at a private party at Lafayette Square in Duluth's Park Point neighborhood. One of those bands was his own, Father Hennepin
, performing for the first time. That event is considered the precursor of the Homegrown Music Festival.
The first Homegrown was held at the NorShor Theater's Mezzanine Lounge over two nights, attracting about 1,000 people. Ten bands performed: Father Hennepin
, Giljunko, Max Dakota, the Black Labels, Amy Abts, Gild, Crazy Betty, Ballyhoo, 2 Sleepy People and the First Ladies.
This Homegrown is best remembered for raucous sets by the Black Eyed Snakes
and Giljunko in the NorShor mezzanine. Al Sparhawk's father sat in with the 'Snakes. Giljunko's set actually steamed up the NorShor mezzanine's wall of mirrors.
Ripsaw reporter David Stein noted that the First Ladies "saved Homegrown from the villain Hu Phlung Pu and his evil minions in hand-to-hand combat that spilled off the stage and onto the dance floor in a tangle of hula-hoops and toilet paper streams."
Other memorable moments included the Dames opening their set with a kazoo version of "The Star-Spangled Banner," the Black Labels passing out marijuana cigarettes to the audience, Father Hennepin performing with a ten-member choir and Ballyhoo closing the festival with a cover of "Sympathy for the Devil."
This was the first year a kickball game was played between the bands that played on Friday and the bands the played on Saturday. The Saturday Rollers defeated the Friday Rawkers by a score of 7-6.
at a pizza restaurant.
The Homegrown Kickball Classic was played on a softball field outside Wade Municipal Stadium after the city's parks and recreation director put a stop to plans for the game to be held inside the stadium.
open, providing an all-ages venue.
newspaper, purchased Homegrown from Lunt in 2005 and expanded the festival to include 84 acts.
Homegrown 2006 featured 115 acts over eight days, including the "farewell performance" of Bone Appetit. For the first time, a free trolley bus shuttled attendees from venue to venue on Friday and Saturday nights. A video festival was added to Homegrown's Monday night lineup.
In a controversial kickball game, the Saturday bands won for the seventh consecutive year.
For the first time in Homegrown history, the Friday bands finally defeated the Saturday bands at kickball, winning 4-3.
Ness relinquished his position as festival director following the 2007 festival, announcing he was running for mayor. He won the office that fall.
Paul Connolly was appointed by the Homegrown steering committee to replace Ness as director.
The first CD compilation of Homegrown bands was released at the end of 2008. "Homegrown Rawk and/or Roll: Starfire's Mix" included 15 tracks by bands that helped make the festival famous.
Among the bands reuniting for Homegrown 2010 were the Fromundas and Ballyhoo. Both bands helped transform the local music scene in the late 1990s. The Fromundas had not performed together in 13 years; Ballyhoo had been broken up for eight years.
Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,265 in the 2010 census. Duluth is also the second largest city that is located on Lake Superior after Thunder Bay, Ontario,...
's annual showcase of local bands. The event has grown from featuring 10 acts in 1999 to 156 in 2011. It happens every year during the first week of May.
Notable acts that have performed in the festival include: Low, Trampled By Turtles
Trampled By Turtles
Trampled By Turtles is a progressive bluegrass band from Duluth, Minnesota. The group is most famous for its high-tempo, fast-paced songs but also features lead vocalist Dave Simonett's lyric writing abilities in slower ballads. Their high-energy concerts have attracted an ever-growing,...
, Charlie Parr
Charlie Parr
Charlie Parr is an American country blues musician, born in Austin, Minnesota, United States. He started his music career in Duluth, Minnesota. His influences include Charlie Patton, Bukka White, Reverend Gary Davis, and Dave Van Ronk. He plays a National resonator guitar, a fretless open-back...
, Retribution Gospel Choir
Retribution Gospel Choir
Retribution Gospel Choir is a band based out of Duluth, Minnesota that plays short, driving songs that often start out poppy melodic and then turn into psychedelic improvisations and drum and bass-heavy dub. Current members of the band include, Alan Sparhawk , Steve Garrington , both of whom are...
, the Dames, the Alrights, the Black Labels, the Keep Aways
The Keep Aways
The Keep Aways is an American punk band from Duluth, Minnesota. Since releasing their debut album in 2004, the band has toured the U.S. with Black Eyed Snakes. The Keep Aways music has been compared to Babes in Toyland and The Gossip by the College Music Journal.Lead singer Mindy Johnson has also...
, Giljunko, Bone Appetit, the Black Eyed Snakes
Black Eyed Snakes
The Black-eyed Snakes is an American blues rock band from Duluth, Minnesota. Since releasing their debut album "It's the Black-eyed Snakes" in 2001, the band has toured the U.S. with Charlie Parr. Front man Alan Sparhawk also performs with Low and Retribution Gospel Choir.The Black-eyed Snakes...
and Haley Bonar
Haley Bonar
Haley Bonar is an American alternative country singer-songwriter who hails from South Dakota. She has lived in Duluth and St. Paul, Minnesota. In July 2009, she moved to Portland, Oregon, where she spent a year writing songs for her newest album Golder, which is to be released April 19, 2011...
.
The event was originally a for-profit venture, but became a nonprofit in 2006 and is now run by a steering committee. The Bridge Syndicate is its fiscal agent. Shana David-Massett is the festival director.
Pre-history
Duluthian Scott Lunt, known as "DJ Starfire" or simply "Starfire," became a prominent figure in the Duluth music scene in 1997 when he founded Random Radio, an unlicensed low-power station. With about 40 friends volunteering to broadcast shows from his basement in Duluth's East Hillside neighborhood, Lunt became well acquainted with Duluth musicians and traveling musicians, who would perform live on random broadcasts.For Lunt's 30th birthday, he invited five acts to play at a private party at Lafayette Square in Duluth's Park Point neighborhood. One of those bands was his own, Father Hennepin
Father Hennepin (Band)
Father Hennepin is an American alternative country band from Duluth, Minnesota. Since releasing their debut album "Crooked With Gin"in 1999, the band has been perennial headliners of the Homegrown Music Festival in Duluth, Minnesota....
, performing for the first time. That event is considered the precursor of the Homegrown Music Festival.
1999
In February 1999, Lunt was playing cribbage with friends and reminiscing about his 30th birthday party. During the conversation, he decided to hold another party, this time open to the general public, called the Homegrown Music Festival.The first Homegrown was held at the NorShor Theater's Mezzanine Lounge over two nights, attracting about 1,000 people. Ten bands performed: Father Hennepin
Father Hennepin (Band)
Father Hennepin is an American alternative country band from Duluth, Minnesota. Since releasing their debut album "Crooked With Gin"in 1999, the band has been perennial headliners of the Homegrown Music Festival in Duluth, Minnesota....
, Giljunko, Max Dakota, the Black Labels, Amy Abts, Gild, Crazy Betty, Ballyhoo, 2 Sleepy People and the First Ladies.
2000
The second annual Homegrown expanded to include 22 acts. The NorShor's main theater opened as a second stage, and acoustic acts played the Fitger's Brewhouse. A third night was added to the festival for the Thursday night Starfire Lounge, during which DJ Starfire spun music by local bands.This Homegrown is best remembered for raucous sets by the Black Eyed Snakes
Black Eyed Snakes
The Black-eyed Snakes is an American blues rock band from Duluth, Minnesota. Since releasing their debut album "It's the Black-eyed Snakes" in 2001, the band has toured the U.S. with Charlie Parr. Front man Alan Sparhawk also performs with Low and Retribution Gospel Choir.The Black-eyed Snakes...
and Giljunko in the NorShor mezzanine. Al Sparhawk's father sat in with the 'Snakes. Giljunko's set actually steamed up the NorShor mezzanine's wall of mirrors.
Ripsaw reporter David Stein noted that the First Ladies "saved Homegrown from the villain Hu Phlung Pu and his evil minions in hand-to-hand combat that spilled off the stage and onto the dance floor in a tangle of hula-hoops and toilet paper streams."
Other memorable moments included the Dames opening their set with a kazoo version of "The Star-Spangled Banner," the Black Labels passing out marijuana cigarettes to the audience, Father Hennepin performing with a ten-member choir and Ballyhoo closing the festival with a cover of "Sympathy for the Devil."
This was the first year a kickball game was played between the bands that played on Friday and the bands the played on Saturday. The Saturday Rollers defeated the Friday Rawkers by a score of 7-6.
2001
In its third year, Homegrown featured 38 acts at four locations over three nights. Beaner's Central and the Red Lion Lounge were added as venues. This was the first year Charlie Parr and Low played the festival (though Low performed as a two-piece, without bassist Zak Sally). Mayor Gary Doty signed a proclamation declaring Homegrown Music Festival Weekend in the city of Duluth.2002
The fourth Homegrown expanded to include 67 acts playing four nights at eight venues. A change in city law prior to the festival allowed clubs with cabaret licenses to obtain extended hours permits for dancing and live music. This led to a raucous performance by the Black-eyed Snakes at Pizza Lucé during the wee hours of the night/morning featuring what may be the first documented case of crowd surfingCrowd surfing
Crowd surfing is the process in which a person is passed overhead from person to person during a concert, transferring the person from one part of the venue to another...
at a pizza restaurant.
2003
Homegrown expanded to five days in its fifth year, and included 77 acts. Notable moments included Scott Lunt shaving his hair into a mohawk, foul-mouthed country singer Brad Nailer playing on the sidewalk in front of the NorShor Theater, Geek Prom Queen AnnMarie O'Malley crowd-surfing with her crown on, and scene designer Doug Odlevak creating a giant replica of the Ariel Lift Bridge over the NorShor's main stage.The Homegrown Kickball Classic was played on a softball field outside Wade Municipal Stadium after the city's parks and recreation director put a stop to plans for the game to be held inside the stadium.
2004
The sixth annual Homegrown was the last one organized by Lunt. It was also the only year the number of bands decreased, with a roster of 74 acts. It was also a year that saw the Twin Ports Music and Arts CollectiveTwin Ports Music and Arts Collective
The Twin Ports Music and Arts Collective commonly referred to as "The MAC", was an all-ages venue in Duluth, Minnesota from 2004-2005. The organization was formed by a group of 10 musicians and artists from the Duluth/Superior area who saw the growing need for an open, non-genre specific,...
open, providing an all-ages venue.
2005
Brothers Tim and Brad Nelson, then publishers of the RipsawRipsaw
Ripsaw was a Duluth, Minnesota newspaper published from 1917 to 1926 and again from 1999 to 2005. In its original incarnation, the paper was a scandal sheet with a reputation for muckraking, sensationalism and criminal libel...
newspaper, purchased Homegrown from Lunt in 2005 and expanded the festival to include 84 acts.
2006
In late 2005, the Nelsons donated Homegrown to the nonprofit Bridge Syndicate, which organized a steering committee to run the festival. Al Sparhawk and Amy Abts were co-chairs of the committee.Homegrown 2006 featured 115 acts over eight days, including the "farewell performance" of Bone Appetit. For the first time, a free trolley bus shuttled attendees from venue to venue on Friday and Saturday nights. A video festival was added to Homegrown's Monday night lineup.
In a controversial kickball game, the Saturday bands won for the seventh consecutive year.
2007
Duluth City Councilor Don Ness assumed the role of festival director in 2007. The roster of bands grew to 131.For the first time in Homegrown history, the Friday bands finally defeated the Saturday bands at kickball, winning 4-3.
Ness relinquished his position as festival director following the 2007 festival, announcing he was running for mayor. He won the office that fall.
Paul Connolly was appointed by the Homegrown steering committee to replace Ness as director.
The first CD compilation of Homegrown bands was released at the end of 2008. "Homegrown Rawk and/or Roll: Starfire's Mix" included 15 tracks by bands that helped make the festival famous.
2008
The tenth annual Homegrown featured 150 bands at 23 venues. Another compilation CD was released late in 2008, "Homegrown Rawk and/or Roll: Lindquist's Mix."2009
The 2009 Homegrown Music Festival featured 141 bands at 22 venues. Homegrown's video festival became the Homegrown Music Video Festival, with a new format of having videographers randomly draw names of songs to make music videos for.2010
The 2010 Homegrown Music Festival featured 149 bands performing at 25 venues.Among the bands reuniting for Homegrown 2010 were the Fromundas and Ballyhoo. Both bands helped transform the local music scene in the late 1990s. The Fromundas had not performed together in 13 years; Ballyhoo had been broken up for eight years.