For the first time in a dozen years, St. Paul’s Harriet Island Regional Park will host a major rock and pop music festival, dubbed the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival, on Friday and Saturday. Headlined by Gwen Stefani, Alanis Morissette and Red Hot Chili Peppers, the festival (which despite its name has nothing to do with yacht rock) is promoted by C3 Presents, an Austin, Texas, company that’s also behind Austin City Limits Music Festival, Voodoo Music + Arts Experience and the modern-day Lollapalooza.
C3 was the largest independent promoter in the world until Live Nation bought a controlling stake in the company in 2014. Organizers expect to attract more than 30,000 concertgoers each day. While the Irish Fair of Minnesota calls Harriet Island home each August, music festivals have had a rough go on the site.
The original Lollapalooza (back when it was a traveling festival) landed on the site in 1991, 1992 and 1994, but flooding forced the fest to move to the late St. Paul Civic Center in 1993. Live Nation attempted to establish a new annual event, the River’s Edge Music Festival, in 2012.
Despite big-name headliners Tool and the Dave Matthews Band, the festival didn’t attract enough paying customers to convince the concert promoting giant to return for a second year. Here’s what folks headed to the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival need to know: As of Wednesday afternoon, tickets were still available at a number of price points, starting at $135 for one day general admis.