Festivals

The Coronas at Ceol on the River, Harriet Island (August 7, 2025)

The Irish Fair of Minnesota is one of the largest annual festivals of its type in the country, with a full three days of events. Taking over Harriet Island in downtown St. Paul, the Irish Fair will have half a dozen stages for music and dance events, and tents and space for plenty of food, drink, crafts, and sports. And with all of that, this year they are expanding with a Thursday night event, Ceol on the River (ceol being the Irish word for music). Three bands, headlined by alternative rock band The Coronas kicked off the first ever event.

Minnesota Yacht Club, Harriet Island (July 20, 2025)

The final day of the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival, at Harriet Island, in St Paul, was looking to be nearly perfect weather and was certainly the heaviest attended crowd of the festival early in the day.

Minnesota Yacht Club, Harriet Island (July 19, 2025)

With no real rain in the forecast for Day 2 of the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival, things were looking clear for the full slate of bands. Organizers and Festival staff kept things moving smoothly, which was impressive given the large number of people in the relatively small Harriet Island Regional Park.

Minneapolis This Week (July 20, 2025)

Twin Cities Jazz Festival at Mears Park, St Paul (June 20-21, 2025)

On a balmy summer evening in downtown St. Paul the Twin Cities Jazz Festival kicked off its 27th year. Earlier in the week the Star and Tribune noted that the TCJF is bigger than the Taste of Minnesota and boasts more musical acts than the Minnesota Yacht Club. In fact, there were over eighty artists playing 20 venues over two days and a lot of it was free. So, it was my intention to catch five of these acts at Mears Park.

Best of the Fests: Mosswood Meltdown and Portola Music Festival

Get ready for those tasty East Bay summer vibes: For my tastes, nothing says Hella Oakland more than the annual Mosswood Meltdown. This year’s weekend music fest takes place July 19-20 at Mosswood Park, natch, and, per usual, features the inimitable filmmaker and indie tastemaker John Waters as your cheeky host. This year, many of the acts are making their only Bay Area appearance at the fest, including DEVO, Osees, The Exploding Hearts, Shannon & the Clams. Also appearing are ‘90s riot grrrl band Bratmobile and Kreayshawn, who’s doing her first show in over a decade. You might be baking under that East Bay sun, but you’ll for sure be doing it in style.

Milwaukee Metal Fest 2025

Here is a report of Milwaukee Metal Fest. The event took place over the weekend, May 16 to May 18 (with a pre-party kickoff on Thursday night) at The Rave/Eagles Ballroom, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Best of the Fest: Milwaukee Metal Fest, Kerrville Folk Festival, and Festival International de Jazz de Montreal

Milwaukee Metal Fest milwaukeemetalfestival.com Metal Fans Unite! The Milwaukee Metal Fest is coming up on...