Selective Focus: Homegrown 2022 Rawk Night

Select Instagram images from day six of the Homegrown Music Festival.

Zeppelins Over Duluth

From the book The First Time Germany Invaded Duluth, Minnesota by Peter S. Svenson:

“July 1, 1917: The Weltanshauung, a German hydrogen war-zeppelin, lost power over Bavaria. Captured by the wind, for the next two weeks it blew north across Europe and then the Arctic Circle. The furious crew tried fixing the engines but never succeeded. Technically, they set the World Record for the first arctic crossing by air, a feat later repeated by Shackleton.”

From “Zeppelins Over Duluth!” Duluth Herald, July 16, 1917:

“The Weltanshauung contained an internal airplane hangar with six black tri-planes that emerged from the nose of the craft like hornets. A Canadian fighter squadron looked for the zeppelin over Lake Erie and almost collided with it in the dark. It was a cliff face hanging in the sky, dwarfing them with the black-cross-on-white symbol of the German Air Force. But the Canadians lost it in confusion and fear. Soon a lake steamer spotted it drifting within sight of the North Shore of Lake Superior, toward Duluth. The authorities mobilized the American helium zeppelin, the Federalist, from its floating hangar in the Duluth harbor.

MN Moder – “One Minute Murder”

New single by Duluth-based hip-hop artist Zachary Moder, aka MN Moder. Video by Montclair Media.

Selective Focus: Homegrown 2022 Soup Town Night

Select Instagram images from day five of the Homegrown Music Festival.

I love you Homegrown but I can’t do this anymore!

I played my first Homegrown when I was seventeen. My high school band opened for Coyote at Teatro Zuccone. It was the first sold out show of my music career. I got to share a green room with THE Jerree Small. I got an artist pass on a cool lanyard that let me into any all-ages show (and a few 21+ shows too). I felt like I was on the edge of something. I felt grown up and I felt seen. At the time, it seemed like that feeling was coming from my artist pass, free T-shirt, and (maybe) $50 cheque. Looking back, I understand that what I actually experienced was membership and pride in a community of practice for the first time in my young life. Homegrown gave me an invaluable jumping off point as an artist in this city. It made me proud to be from Duluth and proud of my peers and mentors for choosing to make music here. It opened Duluth to me and deepened my relationship to community and to music. That experience kept me coming back through the years and and through my development as an artist. I’m grateful for it and I always will be, but like many artists in this town my relationship to the festival has become a bit complicated.

Selective Focus: Homegrown 2022 Westside Wednesday

Select Instagram images from day four of the Homegrown Music Festival.

Postcard from Duluth’s Grand Opera House

Duluth’s Grand Opera House at 333 W. Superior St. was designed by George Wirth and opened in 1883. It was destroyed by fire on Jan. 28, 1889.

Selective Focus: Homegrown 2022 Canal Park Night

Select Instagram images from day three of the Homegrown Music Festival.

Minnesota Historia: The Legend of St. Urho

As the patron saint of Finland, St. Urho is famous for casting the grasshoppers out of the country and saving their grapes. Except, of course, none of that ever happened. St. Urho was invented out of thin air in the 1950s by the manager of a department store in Virginia, Minn.

Minnesota Historia is a six-part WDSE-TV web series dedicated to Minnesota’s quirky past. It is hosted by Hailey Eidenschink and produced/edited/written by Mike Scholtz.

Selective Focus: Homegrown 2022 Craft District Night

Select Instagram images from day two of the Homegrown Music Festival.

A look at the future Blacklist Brewing Company location

Blacklist Brewery‘s move to 206 E. Superior St., announced about a year ago, is nearing reality. An opening date announcement is expected soon.

Until then, à la Bryant Lake Bowl and Glensheen, a drone flythrough tour is available. The video is by Ethan Schultz of ShotxSchultz.

Selective Focus: Homegrown 2022 Opening Ceremonies

Select Instagram images from opening day of the Homegrown Music Festival.

Homegrown Music Festival 2022 Primer

The Homegrown Music Festival is back in person, May 1-8. There’s a 100-page Field Guide available as usual, with all the specifics about the 195ish bands performing at 45 venues in the Twin Ports, but what are the hot updates? Well, that’s why PDD always kicks out a primer.

Video Archive: Homegrown 2017 Movie

Sam Tuthill put together this documentary from select performances during the 2017 Homegrown Music Festival.

Homegrown on Almanac North

The Homegrown Music Festival returns to in-person concerts this year, running May 1-8. WDSE-TV‘s Almanac North program reports on what the Twin Ports has been missing the past two years.