By Gretchen McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)

PITTSBURGH — With restaurants closed and stay-at-home orders in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during the early months of the pandemic, Americans responded in the only way they could at meal time.

We started cooking at home more than ever before, even though it was harder than ever to find some ingredients on store shelves. And all the while, grocery stores had to alter their occupancy levels and traffic patterns to allow for social distancing.

We also took up baking in record numbers, particularly of bread as friends shared sourdough starters or re-discovered long-forgotten bread machines in our basements, leading to flour and yeast shortages all over the country.

“With COVID I was able to get that love of cooking and baking back,” shared Peg Morrow of Ellwood City in an email. “My bread baking skills certainly improved with practice. I combed the internet and the Post-Gazette for new recipes trying new procedures never before attempted.”

It was a commonly echoed sentiment.

“I have happily been making bread again,” says retired geologist Peter Hutchinson of Murrysville, after his daughter replaced the bread machine he gave to his wife in 1999 (that made “a ball of goo”) with a new model. “And so has many of my friends who also discovered their bread makers.”

Mark Mastandrea, who had just followed his wife, Donna, into retirement when the world shut down in March 2020, is another who took advantage of the pandemic to improve his culinary skills.

Before the shutdown, the Shaler resident recalls in an email, “I was an adequate, by the numbers cook. Many recipes I made were demonstrably good, but I always felt something was missing.”

With more time on his hands, he was able to commit to preparing healthy food and entertaining his wife by cooking most of their meals, 7 days a week, 365 days a year — think breakfasts with homemade oat flour pancakes, grilled cheese lunches and dinners featuring creative dishes like rum and coke salmon

“The time we spent included finding recipes, watching cooking shows, buying new cooking tools and spices online and developing new ways to source ingredients, including the Bloomfield Saturday Market and Pennsylvania Macaroni online store with pickup in the back alley,” he writes. “The end result was improvements in planning a meal, preparation techniques, food presentation and enjoyment of the home dining experience.”

Five years later, grocery shelves are once again full (if more expensive than ever), restaurants are busy and consumers are returning to pre-pandemic habits and cooking less frequently at home, driving shifts in spending.

Or as Mastandrea notes, “Projects like all-day seafood stocks [have been] replaced by grilled seafood and roasted veggies. We no longer toast whole oats and made our own oat flour. Gone are the four separate charcuterie plates for each family ‘pod’ at a socially distanced picnic. What remains is the “Been There, Got the T-Shirt” of going from doing what you had to do, to confidently doing what you love to do.”

Less cooking, more online shopping

Today, Americans spend a majority of their food budgets on dishes prepared outside the home, according to a 2024 survey by the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts based on USDA data — 55.7% on dining out and ordering takeout versus 44.3% on groceries.

But if we’re shopping less for the ingredients we need to make dinner, we’re also shopping a little differently for groceries in 2025.

Nearly 20% of shoppers of all ages engaged in online grocery shopping at least once in the past month, according to a report by the USDA.

Ordering groceries online for pickup or delivery was hardly a new technology when COVID-19 hit: Giant Eagle started offering it at some of its Market District stores around 2012, says Heather Feather, Giant Eagle’s senior director of digital and eCommerce strategy. Walmart — the largest grocery chain in the U.S., with over 4,700 stores nationwide — began piloting online ordering with grocery pickup in 2013 in Denver.

“It was starting to pop up with other retailers, and we saw a lot of of opportunity for convenience and wanted to really get ahead of the demand,” says Feather.

But it really started to take off in 2018, as improved technology made online grocery shopping more accessible, appealing and streamlined. Consumers steadily grew to love its convenience.

That year, Walmart brought grocery delivery to 100 metro areas serving 40% of the U.S. population. Giant Eagle followed suit, expanding the service into more stores across the metro area.

“We identified this as an upcoming trend to capture the next generation of shoppers,” says public relations manager Jannah Drexler. “We were really at the forefront.”

Related Articles

Cooking with kids teaches healthy eating, life skills and more

Recipe: Pork chop crusty rolls conjure delicious memories of Hong Kong

In Tunisia, snails inch toward replacing red meat as people turn to cheaper protein

These streamlined Neapolitan meatballs are made with panko breadcrumbs

Dining Diary: Breakfast at Razava, dinner at The High Hat, dessert and drinks at Estelle

The pandemic, which forced groceries to change their operations in response to public health concerns, and the accompanying shift in customers’ shopping behavior (remember the footprints on the floor that told shoppers which way they were allowed to walk? And special hours for elderly and immunocompromised shoppers?) only helped grow demand.

At Giant Eagle, for instance, demand tripled almost overnight, says Feather.

“We all remember where we were that week [when everything got shut down] because it really tested our technical systems and our teams in the stores who were filling orders,” she says. “But it was a great learning opportunity and it encouraged guests to try the service who hadn’t before.”

According to a 2020 survey by Supermarket News, nearly 80% of U.S. consumers shopped online for groceries in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak. And grocery shopping online has continued to grow in popularity among customers of all ages and lifestyles — from busy families and working professionals to elderly people and those unable to leave their homes — to the point where more than 90% of shoppers now purchase groceries both in store and online.

Today, Walmart can make same-day store deliveries to 93% of the U.S.

“It has definitely continued to grow, not only in demand, but we’re seeing that people want it even faster,” says a spokesperson for Walmart, which now offers expedited on-demand delivery in less than three hours and express delivery in 1 hour with an added charge.

To make grocery shopping even easier for customers, the superstore has even created special, one-click shopping list on its website where people can purchase everything they need in one fell swoop for events like the Super Bowl, Thanksgiving and Easter.

People apparently don’t mind coughing up a few extra bucks to get things sooner rather than later; in the past year, more than 30% of delivery orders were expedited at Walmart. The company has also enjoyed four consecutive quarters with 20% growth or higher in eCommerce driven by pickup and delivery.

eCommerce grocery shopping is also brisk at Giant Eagle. Pittsburgh’s largest grocery chain currently offers curbside pickup at 104 supermarket locations, and home delivery is available broadly across its markets, says Drexler.

Tim Westine, 28, Curb Side Team Leader, shops for a customer at the South Hills Market District on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Bethel Park. (Benjamin B. Braun/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

Filling those baskets

Perhaps not surprisingly, Sunday is the busiest day for online shopping at Giant Eagle, says Tim Westine, 28, a curbside team leader at the South Hills Market District who has worked six of his nine years in the chain’s curbside division.

What does surprise is how quickly the 3,000 dedicated curbside team members responsible for filling the region’s online orders — identified by their bright green t-shirts — load their bins with the wide variety of produce, canned items, meat and anything else a customer has put on the list. While every day is different, the 45 team members Westine supervises can fill up to 1,200 orders a week, which means they have to be both quick and efficient.

“It’s really a robust process,” says Feather.

During the early days of the pandemic, many orders were for non-perishable packaged foods like cereals or cases of water and paper items like toilet paper. And customers often had to wait up to two or three days to secure an available spot.

“People were waking up at midnight to place an order,” remembers Westine.

“We were at capacity with both staff and product,” agrees Wexler. “We were really maxing out.”

Tim Westine, 28, Curb Side Team Leader, shops for a customer at the South Hills Market District on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Bethel Park. (Benjamin B. Braun/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

Today, it’s less about pantry items and more about the fresh items needed for daily cooking like produce, meat and dairy.

Save for hot foods, everything that’s available on store shelves can be ordered online, Wexler notes, and customers can earn and redeem the same perks as in-store shoppers. And the service is free for pickup with a minimum $35 order; delivery — which is available in as little as three hours — costs $9.95. Food items can also be purchased online with SNAP benefits.

While the service might seem impersonal, there’s actually quite a bit of one-to-one interaction between customers and team members, says Westine, who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2018 with a math degree and started working for Giant Eagle during college.

If a team member has to make a substitution as they shop with a handheld device that both shows the customer’s order and where the items are located in the store, they send a text.

“We get bananas on almost every single order, and you can leave a note for your shopper if you want them bigger or smaller or green,” notes Feather, “so it really is a personal service [where] you get exactly what you want.”

Drexler adds that one of the big benefits on Giant Eagle’s online shopping program is how thoroughly trained team members are. While some might like to choose their own tomatoes or smell a fish fillet before buying, “they’re shopping as closely to the order as possible so when it’s picked up or delivered, no one is dissatisfied.”

The fact the grocery store recently entered into third-party partnerships with Instacart, DoorDash and Uber Eats has only made online grocery shopping easier, faster and more convenient.

While the vast majority of its business is still brick-and-mortar, of in-store shopping, Drexler says “we [have] so many people getting into the [online] space.”

She adds, “It will be interesting to see how it evolves and grows over the next years” as people get more comfortable with allowing others to do their shopping.

©2025 PG Publishing Co. Visit at post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Gretchen McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)

PITTSBURGH — With restaurants closed and stay-at-home orders in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during the early months of the pandemic, Americans responded in the only way they could at meal time.

We started cooking at home more than ever before, even though it was harder than ever to find some ingredients on store shelves. And all the while, grocery stores had to alter their occupancy levels and traffic patterns to allow for social distancing.

We also took up baking in record numbers, particularly of bread as friends shared sourdough starters or re-discovered long-forgotten bread machines in our basements, leading to flour and yeast shortages all over the country.

“With COVID I was able to get that love of cooking and baking back,” shared Peg Morrow of Ellwood City in an email. “My bread baking skills certainly improved with practice. I combed the internet and the Post-Gazette for new recipes trying new procedures never before attempted.”

It was a commonly echoed sentiment.

“I have happily been making bread again,” says retired geologist Peter Hutchinson of Murrysville, after his daughter replaced the bread machine he gave to his wife in 1999 (that made “a ball of goo”) with a new model. “And so has many of my friends who also discovered their bread makers.”

Mark Mastandrea, who had just followed his wife, Donna, into retirement when the world shut down in March 2020, is another who took advantage of the pandemic to improve his culinary skills.

Before the shutdown, the Shaler resident recalls in an email, “I was an adequate, by the numbers cook. Many recipes I made were demonstrably good, but I always felt something was missing.”

With more time on his hands, he was able to commit to preparing healthy food and entertaining his wife by cooking most of their meals, 7 days a week, 365 days a year — think breakfasts with homemade oat flour pancakes, grilled cheese lunches and dinners featuring creative dishes like rum and coke salmon

“The time we spent included finding recipes, watching cooking shows, buying new cooking tools and spices online and developing new ways to source ingredients, including the Bloomfield Saturday Market and Pennsylvania Macaroni online store with pickup in the back alley,” he writes. “The end result was improvements in planning a meal, preparation techniques, food presentation and enjoyment of the home dining experience.”

Five years later, grocery shelves are once again full (if more expensive than ever), restaurants are busy and consumers are returning to pre-pandemic habits and cooking less frequently at home, driving shifts in spending.

Or as Mastandrea notes, “Projects like all-day seafood stocks [have been] replaced by grilled seafood and roasted veggies. We no longer toast whole oats and made our own oat flour. Gone are the four separate charcuterie plates for each family ‘pod’ at a socially distanced picnic. What remains is the “Been There, Got the T-Shirt” of going from doing what you had to do, to confidently doing what you love to do.”

Less cooking, more online shopping

Today, Americans spend a majority of their food budgets on dishes prepared outside the home, according to a 2024 survey by the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts based on USDA data — 55.7% on dining out and ordering takeout versus 44.3% on groceries.

But if we’re shopping less for the ingredients we need to make dinner, we’re also shopping a little differently for groceries in 2025.

Nearly 20% of shoppers of all ages engaged in online grocery shopping at least once in the past month, according to a report by the USDA.

Ordering groceries online for pickup or delivery was hardly a new technology when COVID-19 hit: Giant Eagle started offering it at some of its Market District stores around 2012, says Heather Feather, Giant Eagle’s senior director of digital and eCommerce strategy. Walmart — the largest grocery chain in the U.S., with over 4,700 stores nationwide — began piloting online ordering with grocery pickup in 2013 in Denver.

“It was starting to pop up with other retailers, and we saw a lot of of opportunity for convenience and wanted to really get ahead of the demand,” says Feather.

But it really started to take off in 2018, as improved technology made online grocery shopping more accessible, appealing and streamlined. Consumers steadily grew to love its convenience.

That year, Walmart brought grocery delivery to 100 metro areas serving 40% of the U.S. population. Giant Eagle followed suit, expanding the service into more stores across the metro area.

“We identified this as an upcoming trend to capture the next generation of shoppers,” says public relations manager Jannah Drexler. “We were really at the forefront.”

Related Articles

Cooking with kids teaches healthy eating, life skills and more

Recipe: Pork chop crusty rolls conjure delicious memories of Hong Kong

In Tunisia, snails inch toward replacing red meat as people turn to cheaper protein

These streamlined Neapolitan meatballs are made with panko breadcrumbs

Dining Diary: Breakfast at Razava, dinner at The High Hat, dessert and drinks at Estelle

The pandemic, which forced groceries to change their operations in response to public health concerns, and the accompanying shift in customers’ shopping behavior (remember the footprints on the floor that told shoppers which way they were allowed to walk? And special hours for elderly and immunocompromised shoppers?) only helped grow demand.

At Giant Eagle, for instance, demand tripled almost overnight, says Feather.

“We all remember where we were that week [when everything got shut down] because it really tested our technical systems and our teams in the stores who were filling orders,” she says. “But it was a great learning opportunity and it encouraged guests to try the service who hadn’t before.”

According to a 2020 survey by Supermarket News, nearly 80% of U.S. consumers shopped online for groceries in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak. And grocery shopping online has continued to grow in popularity among customers of all ages and lifestyles — from busy families and working professionals to elderly people and those unable to leave their homes — to the point where more than 90% of shoppers now purchase groceries both in store and online.

Today, Walmart can make same-day store deliveries to 93% of the U.S.

“It has definitely continued to grow, not only in demand, but we’re seeing that people want it even faster,” says a spokesperson for Walmart, which now offers expedited on-demand delivery in less than three hours and express delivery in 1 hour with an added charge.

To make grocery shopping even easier for customers, the superstore has even created special, one-click shopping list on its website where people can purchase everything they need in one fell swoop for events like the Super Bowl, Thanksgiving and Easter.

People apparently don’t mind coughing up a few extra bucks to get things sooner rather than later; in the past year, more than 30% of delivery orders were expedited at Walmart. The company has also enjoyed four consecutive quarters with 20% growth or higher in eCommerce driven by pickup and delivery.

eCommerce grocery shopping is also brisk at Giant Eagle. Pittsburgh’s largest grocery chain currently offers curbside pickup at 104 supermarket locations, and home delivery is available broadly across its markets, says Drexler.

Tim Westine, 28, Curb Side Team Leader, shops for a customer at the South Hills Market District on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Bethel Park. (Benjamin B. Braun/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

Filling those baskets

Perhaps not surprisingly, Sunday is the busiest day for online shopping at Giant Eagle, says Tim Westine, 28, a curbside team leader at the South Hills Market District who has worked six of his nine years in the chain’s curbside division.

What does surprise is how quickly the 3,000 dedicated curbside team members responsible for filling the region’s online orders — identified by their bright green t-shirts — load their bins with the wide variety of produce, canned items, meat and anything else a customer has put on the list. While every day is different, the 45 team members Westine supervises can fill up to 1,200 orders a week, which means they have to be both quick and efficient.

“It’s really a robust process,” says Feather.

During the early days of the pandemic, many orders were for non-perishable packaged foods like cereals or cases of water and paper items like toilet paper. And customers often had to wait up to two or three days to secure an available spot.

“People were waking up at midnight to place an order,” remembers Westine.

“We were at capacity with both staff and product,” agrees Wexler. “We were really maxing out.”

Tim Westine, 28, Curb Side Team Leader, shops for a customer at the South Hills Market District on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Bethel Park. (Benjamin B. Braun/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

Today, it’s less about pantry items and more about the fresh items needed for daily cooking like produce, meat and dairy.

Save for hot foods, everything that’s available on store shelves can be ordered online, Wexler notes, and customers can earn and redeem the same perks as in-store shoppers. And the service is free for pickup with a minimum $35 order; delivery — which is available in as little as three hours — costs $9.95. Food items can also be purchased online with SNAP benefits.

While the service might seem impersonal, there’s actually quite a bit of one-to-one interaction between customers and team members, says Westine, who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2018 with a math degree and started working for Giant Eagle during college.

If a team member has to make a substitution as they shop with a handheld device that both shows the customer’s order and where the items are located in the store, they send a text.

“We get bananas on almost every single order, and you can leave a note for your shopper if you want them bigger or smaller or green,” notes Feather, “so it really is a personal service [where] you get exactly what you want.”

Drexler adds that one of the big benefits on Giant Eagle’s online shopping program is how thoroughly trained team members are. While some might like to choose their own tomatoes or smell a fish fillet before buying, “they’re shopping as closely to the order as possible so when it’s picked up or delivered, no one is dissatisfied.”

The fact the grocery store recently entered into third-party partnerships with Instacart, DoorDash and Uber Eats has only made online grocery shopping easier, faster and more convenient.

While the vast majority of its business is still brick-and-mortar, of in-store shopping, Drexler says “we [have] so many people getting into the [online] space.”

She adds, “It will be interesting to see how it evolves and grows over the next years” as people get more comfortable with allowing others to do their shopping.

©2025 PG Publishing Co. Visit at post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The spring and summer concert calendar has a little something for everyone, from Rock and Roll Hall of Famers (AC/DC, James Taylor, Nine Inch Nails) to hip hop stars (Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone) to rockers (Pantera, Linkin Park, Deftones).

Keep in mind that some large venues use dynamic pricing, which means ticket prices can vary. Also, the prices noted here do not include VIP packages or platinum tickets, which typically run into the hundreds of dollars.

Here’s a look at what’s on tap in the coming months.

AC/DC

AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson. (Photo by Valerie Macon, AFP via Getty Images)

April 10: Rock and Roll Hall of Famers AC/DC kick off their first U.S. tour in nine years — and possibly the band’s final tour ever — in Minneapolis. The group, which celebrated their 50th anniversary last December, is hitting 13 stadiums across the country during the tour, which is named after “Power Up,” AC/DC’s 17th album. It was released in November 2020, hit No. 1 in 21 countries and was nominated for three Grammys including best rock album. Guitarist Angus Young, the only continuous member in the band’s 51 year history, co-wrote the songs with his brother Malcolm, who died in 2017. 7 p.m.; U.S. Bank Stadium, 401 Chicago Ave., Mpls.; sold out; ticketmaster.com.

Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar performs during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 59 football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (Frank Franklin II / Associated Press)

April 19: After breaking viewership records with his Super Bowl halftime in February, acclaimed rapper Kendrick Lamar is also opening his tour at U.S. Bank Stadium with his frequent collaborator SZA also on the bill. A California native, Lamar began rapping as a teen and found his breakthrough success with his 2012 sophomore album “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City,” which became the longest-charting hip-hop album in the Billboard 200’s chart history. He curated the songs for the soundtrack to the 2018 film “Black Panther” and earned an Oscar nomination for “All the Stars,” one of his many songs with SZA, who is featured on two tracks on Lamar’s latest album “GNX.” 7 p.m.; U.S. Bank Stadium, 401 Chicago Ave., Mpls.; $458.65-$209.35; ticketmaster.com.

Katy Perry

Katy Perry performs onstage during the 61st Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 10, 2019, in Los Angeles. (Obyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images)

May 13: Pop star Katy Perry is back on the road for her first tour in seven years. She began her career in 2001 as a contemporary Christian artist. But after her record label closed shop, Perry moved to Los Angeles and eventually landed at Capitol Records in 2007. The following year, her debut single “I Kissed a Girl” hit No. 1 in the U.S. and around the world. The follow-up singles “Hot n Cold” and “Waking Up in Vegas” were also hits, but Perry’s career didn’t truly take off until 2010’s “Teenage Dream.” It was the second album in history, after Michael Jackson’s “Bad,” to land five singles at No. 1: “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream,” “Firework,” “E.T.” and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.).” Perry’s fourth album “Prism” spawned two more chart-toppers with “Roar” and “Dark Horse.” In the dozen years since, Perry has struggled to land more hits with 2017’s “Chained to the Rhythm” standing as her sole Top 10 entry in that time. 7 p.m.; Target Center, 600 First Ave. N., Mpls.; $374.60-$74.45; ticketmaster.com.

Post Malone

Post Malone performs “America the Beautiful” during the first half of the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Steve Luciano)

May 20: The man born Austin Richard Post first turned heads with his 2015 debut single “White Iverson,” which he posted to SoundCloud that February. It earned more than a million plays in its first month, leading to a deal with Republic Records. Malone’s 2016 album “Stoney” spawned several more multi-platinum hits, including “Too Young,” “Go Flex” and “Congratulations.” From there, Malone went on to release a series of singles that were RIAA-certified diamond for sales and streams of at least 10 million units, including “Rockstar,” “I Fall Apart,” “Psycho,” “Better Now,” “Wow” and “Circles.” His latest album, “F-1 Trillion,” delves into country and features collaborations with Morgan Wallen, Blake Shelton, Luke Combs, Dolly Parton and Chris Stapleton, among others. 7:30 p.m.; U.S. Bank Stadium, 401 Chicago Ave., Mpls.; $561.10-$199.60; ticketmaster.com.

The Weeknd

June 14: The man born Abel Tesfaye adopted the Weeknd name in 2011, when he self-released a trio of mixtapes that led to a major label deal with Republic Records. His long list of hits includes “Love Me Harder,” “The Hills,” “Can’t Feel My Face,” “Starboy,” “I Feel it Coming,” “Die for You,” “Pray for Me,” “Call Out My Name,” “Blinding Lights,” “Save Your Tears,” “One Right Now,” “Creepin’” and “Timeless.” He’s got a feature film coming out May 16 that’s based on his sixth album “Hurry Up Tomorrow.” 7 p.m.; U.S. Bank Stadium, 401 Chicago Ave., Mpls.; $650.50-$76.90; ticketmaster.com.

James Taylor

James Taylor performs onstage during the 7th Annual Sean Penn and Friends Haiti Rising Gala benefiting J/P Haitian Relief Organization on January 6, 2018, in Hollywood, California. (Michael Kovac/Getty Images for for J/P HRO Gala)

June 17: Rock and Roll Hall of Famer James Taylor will return to Xcel Energy Center for his sixth performance in the downtown St. Paul hockey arena. A six-time Grammy winner, Taylor began playing guitar at age 12 and wrote his first song two years later. But he struggled in high school and ended up spending nine months in a psychiatric hospital dealing with severe depression. Taylor later moved to Manhattan to pursue music, but found little success as well as an addiction to heroin. After a stint in rehab, Taylor used a family inheritance to move to London where he became the first non-British act signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records label in 1968. It wasn’t until yet another relocation, this time to California, that Taylor broke through with his sophomore album “Sweet Baby James” and the single “Fire and Rain.” From there, Taylor enjoyed a run of hits with “You’ve Got a Friend,” “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight,” “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),” “Shower the People” and “Handy Man.” 7:30 p.m.; Xcel Energy Center, 175 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul; $175.70-$71.55; ticketmaster.com.

Minnesota Yacht Club Festival

Billie Joe Armstrong, Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt of Green Day perform On ABC’s “Good Morning America” at Rumsey Playfield, Central Park on July 26, 2024 in New York City. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

July 18-20: Green Day, Hozier and Fall Out Boy headline the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival, which extends to three days in its sophomore year. It’s the first major rock and pop music festival on St. Paul’s Harriet Island since 2012’s ill-fated River’s Edge Music Festival. Hozier headlines opening day, which also features Alabama Shakes, Train, Sheryl Crow, Father John Misty, Gigi Perez, the 502s and Hamilton Leithauser. Fall Out Boy tops Saturday’s bill of Weezer, Remi Wolf, O.A.R., Cory Wong, Motion City Soundtrack, Silversun Pickups and Jake Clemons. Green Day wraps the weekend with Sublime, 311, Garbage, Semisonic, Beach Bunny, the Beaches and Grace Bowers and the Hodge Podge. Prices listed are for general admission, general admission plus and VIP tickets. Pricier riverboat VIP and platinum packages are also available. Harriet Island Regional Park, 49 Harriet Island Road, St. Paul; $495-$150 (single day) and $845-$295 (all three days); minnesotayachtclubfestival.com.

The Lumineers

Lauren Jacobson, from left, Brandon Miller, Wesley Schultz, Jeremiah Fraites, Stelth Ulvang and Byron Isaacs of The Lumineers perform at the Innings Festival at Raymond James Stadium Ground on Sunday March 20, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

July 25: The Denver-based Lumineers emerged in 2012 with the single “Ho Hey,” which hit No. 1 in the States and the Top 10 across Europe. The band’s self-titled debut has been certified triple platinum. At the time, it seemed like the band was destined to become a one-hit wonder, but they’ve maintained a steady presence on rock radio and are a popular concert draw. Locally, they headlined Target Center in 2013 and 2017, Xcel Energy Center in 2022 and Somerset (Wis.) Amphitheater in 2023. The tour supports the group’s fifth album, “Automatic,” which drummer Jeremiah Fraites said has “a palpable sense of connection between (lead vocalist) Wes (Schultz) and me. There’s lots of love on this record.” 7:30 p.m.; Xcel Energy Center, 175 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul; $256.60-$246.30; ticketmaster.com.

Pantera

Phil Anselmo of Pantera performs at Soldier Field on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, in Chicago, Ill. (Photo by Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP)

Aug. 7: Brothers Darrell and Vincent Abbott formed Pantera in 1981 and adopted the stage names Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul. They released a trio of glam metal albums before taking a turn toward harder sounds when they hired vocalist Phil Anselmo in 1986. Pantera’s fifth album, 1990’s “Cowboys from Hell,” broke the band to a wider audience and went platinum. They went on to release four more best-selling records, including 1992’s double platinum “Vulgar Display of Power.” In 2003, the Abbott brothers officially disbanded the group amid a war of words between the parties in the press. The brothers went on to form a new band, Damageplan, that ended in tragedy when a 25-year-old man walked on stage during a concert and fatally shot Dimebag Darrell. Vinnie Paul died in 2018 at the age of 54 of heart disease. Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown revived Pantera in 2023 and added longtime Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante to the lineup. 7 p.m.; Target Center, 600 First Ave. N., Mpls.; $331.55-$60.90; ticketmaster.com.

Tate McRae

Tate McRae performs at The Greek Theatre on July 11, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

Aug. 13: Canadian pop star Tate McRae began dance lessons at age 6 and furthered her studies at the training school for the Alberta Ballet Company. She went on to perform with various American dance troupes and, in 2016, made it to third place on “So You Think You Can Dance.” The following year, McRae began posting her own original songs on her YouTube channel, which was previously devoted to dance videos. Her track “One Day” earned the attention of nearly a dozen record labels. She signed with RCA in 2019 and released her breakthrough single “You Broke Me First” the following year. In the time since, McRae found further success with “You,” “She’s All I Wanna Be,” “10:35,” “Greedy” and “Exes.” 7:30 p.m.; Xcel Energy Center, 175 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul; sold out; ticketmaster.com.

Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor performs at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2013. Reznor, Academy Award-winning score composer and business investor, has been the front man for Nine Inch Nails for 37 years. (Simon Guerra / Pioneer Press)

Aug. 17: Founded by Trent Reznor in 1988, Nine Inch Nails blossomed into the biggest industrial rock band around in the ’90s thanks to 1994’s Grammy-nominated album “The Downward Spiral” and its singles “March of the Pigs” and “Closer.” In the years since, Reznor has used various Nine Inch Nails lineups to record and tour, while taking extensive breaks between albums. The band played Target Center in 1995, 2000 and 2008 and Xcel Energy Center in 2005 and 2013. The latter was in support of NIN’s eighth album “Hesitation Marks.” Nine Inch Nails returned to the road in 2017 and 2022, although neither tour had Twin Cities stops. 7:30 p.m.; Xcel Energy Center, 175 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul; sold out; ticketmaster.com.

Linkin Park

Mike Shinoda and Emily Armstrong of Linkin Park perform at Barclays Center on September 16, 2024, in New York City. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

Aug. 27: Friends Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon and Brad Delson began performing together as California high school students in the late ’90s. They played for several years with varying lineups before taking on vocalist Chester Bennington and landing a deal with Warner Bros. Records under the Linkin Park moniker. The band’s 2000 debut “Hybrid Theory” topped 12 million in sales, making it one of the best-selling albums of the ’00s. It also gave the band their first of a long stream of rock radio hits with “One Step Closer,” “Crawling,” “Papercut” and Linkin Park’s breakthrough smash “In the End.” Linkin Park went on to release seven more best-selling albums and toured extensively. Bennington died by suicide in 2017, a week before the planned start of the North American leg. Last year, the group announced they had reunited with a new lead singer, Emily Armstrong. 7 p.m.; Target Center, 600 First Ave. N., Mpls.; $234.55-$75.70; ticketmaster.com.

Deftones

Chino Moreno leads Deftones, whose summer tour will bring them to Minneapolis’ Target Center on Aug. 29, 2025. (Courtesy of Clemente Ruiz)

Aug. 29: Some 30 years after they released their debut album “Adrenaline,” alt-metal band Deftones are headlining the largest local arena show of their career. Childhood friends Chino Moreno (vocals), Stephen Carpenter (guitar) and Abe Cunningham (drums) began jamming together in 1988 when they were in high school. After some lineup changes, the group adopted the name Deftones and signed with Madonna’s Maverick Recordings in 1993. They released “Adrenaline” two years later and toured heavily to support it. They scored their first hit in 2000 with “Change (In the House of Flies),” which landed at No. 9 on Billboard’s mainstream rock chart, the group’s first of a dozen times they visited that chart’s Top 20. The following year, Deftones won their first Grammy, a best metal performance nod for “Elite.” 7 p.m.; Target Center, 600 First Ave. N., Mpls.; $187-$86.95; ticketmaster.com.

One of the season’s most anticipated novels by Peter Geye, adventures on the Mississippi, a cold-case mystery and memoirs of a gay veteran are on today’s varied reading menu made up of books by Minnesota authors launching this month.

“A Lesser Light”: by Peter Geye (University of Minnesota Press, $27.95)

”I am not a preacher. No ma’am. It’s just a beautiful sentiment, this line I am recalling. It seems right for the moment.” He waited for her approval. When she nodded, he said “I believe it says, regarding the creation of the world, that God created two lights. A greater one to rule the day, and a lesser light to rule the night.” — from “A Lesser Light”

Peter Geye (Courtesy of the author)

In his luminous new novel, Peter Geye gives us love and lust, God and science, heavens and deep water, light and dark, and a cast of characters so vividly drawn you are in their minds, hearts, souls. It’s set in a lighthouse on Lake Superior, where the great inland sea has its own moods and is the apparent dwelling place of an omniscient narrator whose comments begin every chapter.

It’s 1910 and Willa, who majored in astronomy at Radcliffe College, is urged by her calculating mother to marry Theodulf Sauer after Willa’s father dies, leaving wife and daughter destitute. Willa and Theo are an odd match in their unconsummated marriage, this young, educated woman and emotionally shut-down Sauer, scion of a prominent, wealthy Duluth Catholic family. The couple doesn’t realize they met years earlier when Willa donned men’s clothing to play the piano at the all-male Mason’s lodge.

Theo, an egotist, has just been made master lighthouse keeper at the new Gininwabiko lighthouse. He expects his wife to attend to domestic life, cooking and keeping their home tidy. But Willa is more interested in the heavens, especially the coming of Halley’s comet. Theo is afraid of this fiery phenomenon, writing to a spiritual mentor to ask if the comet’s tail is poisonous to humans and what scripture says about it.

Willa and Theo sometimes try to understand one another but more often are tense and sometimes hostile. Willa, a careless homemaker, is lonely.  From her window she can see the dock of fisherman Matt and his orphaned niece, Silje, whose parents have just drowned. Silje, who has “summoning powers,” delights Willa and they form a friendship as Willa becomes attracted to Matt. Theo, meanwhile, spends nights tending the big light, brooding about religion and recalling with shame and desire a brief affair he had with a man in Paris.

Geye’s writing is lush, from evoking the sounds, smells and moods of Lake Superior to the mechanics of keeping the lighthouse light functioning to Willa’s amusement at the pomposity of her husband’s uniformed visiting bosses.

(Courtesy of the author)

Secondary characters are as carefully drawn as the protagonists. Willa makes friends with the wives of her husband’s two junior lighthouse keepers and one of them, a wise older woman, helps Willa understand the duty of lighthouse tenders’ wives, whether she likes it or not. Willa’s mother, who is not there when her daughter needs her, cares only for herself, and Theo’s deceased father still haunts his son, whom he saw as worthless. Residents in towns from Two Harbors, Grand Marais and Gunflint show us the variety of people who lived along the North Shore at the turn of the 20th century.

Geye, who lives in his native Minneapolis, is the author of the Eide Family trilogy “The Lighthouse Road,” “Wintering” (Minnesota Book Award), and “Northernmost.” His most recent was “The Ski Jumpers,” published in 2023, now available in paperback.

With each book Geye has gained more fans. He’s surely cemented his place as a leading author with “A Lesser Light,” which is getting glowing advance reviews. What no critic seems able to articulate is the mystery and wonder inherent in this story.

Geye will launch his novel at 7 p.m. April 15 with a party at Norway House, 913 E. Franklin Ave., Mpls., presented by Valley Bookseller of Stillwater and Literature Lovers’ Night Out. $20. For information, go to Valleybookseller.com/events/calendar.

Other metro-area events in Geye’s statewide publicity tour include a 7 p.m. reading April 28 at the University of St. Thomas, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul; April 29, Excelsior Bay Books, Excelsior; May 3, Roseville Public Library and Cream & Amber, Hopkins,;and May 10, Big Hill Books, Mpls.

“Pushing the River”: by Frank Bures (Minnesota Historical Society Press, $24.95)

My limbs felt heavy. Water came over my chin, into my mouth. Everything felt hard now. Then, in a moment of clarity, a thought came into my head. It was not a question. It was not a possibility. It was not panic. It was just a fact, solid as a stone: I am not going to make it to that shore. — from “Pushing the River”

Part history of canoes and canoe races, part river adventures, part personal memories, Frank Bures shows his love for the Mississippi in this multi-genre paperback.

(Courtesy of the author)

Bures, an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in national publications such as Outside magazine, subtitles his tribute to the river “An Epic Battle, a Lost History, a Near Death, and Other True Canoeing Stories.”

The author is a child of the river, growing up in Winona with his friend JD Fratzke, who would go on to be a celebrated chef and restauranteur. His 2024 debut poetry collection, “River Language”, is also an ode to the Mississippi.

The first half of “Pushing the River ” is made up of detailed descriptions of the Paul Bunyan Canoe Derby, an exhausting annual 450-mile race associated with the Minneapolis Aquatennial that ran on the Mississippi in the 1940s into the 1960s. The author introduces people such as canoe-racing legend Gene Jensen and members of the Native American Tibbetts family from the Leech Lake reservation, as well as telling the history of how canoes were built by the Ojibwe and used for centuries by fur traders and others. He explains how Jim and Bernie Smith’s design features are now part of contemporary canoe racing and early discussions about just what is a “canoe.”

Real-life stories depict dangers on the river, including how a couple survived being surrounded by the 2011 Pagami Creek fire in the Boundary Waters and the author’s near-death from hypothermia when his canoe tipped and threw him into icy water.

Bures will launch his book with a free program at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls., in conversation with nature writer Cary Griffith.

“The Murder Show”: by Matt Goldman (Forge, $18.99)

They are the easiest of targets. Ethan feels a fear he’s never known, far above the modern-day angst he normally experiences. Faux problems that fester in the bubble of his insulated world. But canoeing over open water, defenseless in an aluminum craft that couldn’t stop a bullet any better than a sheet of paper, Ethan’s fear gets white hot. — from “The Murder Show”

(Courtesy of Forge Books)

Ethan Harris is not in a good place in this fast-paced mystery that also involves the river. His hit TV production, “The Murder Show,” might not see a fourth season if he doesn’t come up with a good idea, and he doesn’t have one. When a writers’ strike gives him free time, he heads home to Minnesota looking for inspiration and is welcomed by his childhood pal Ro Greeman, who was literally the girl next door. Ro, now a police officer, needs help investigating the death 22 years earlier of their classmate, Ricky, killed in a hit-and-run on a lonely county road. Ethan has nothing else to do so he joins her, thinking some sleuthing might unlock his imagination in writing the TV script.

As the partners dig more deeply into Ricky’s death, they discover other teenage boys have disappeared on lonely country roads far from their homes in the Twin Cities. When they get too close to solving the cold case, they are in danger, beginning with gunfire aimed at their vehicle. What part does one of Ro’s police colleagues play in this venture and why doesn’t Ethan trust him?

Goldman is a playwright and Emmy Award-winning television writer for “Seinfeld,” “Ellen” and other shows, as well as the author of four novels featuring lawyer Nils Shapiro, who makes a cameo appearance in this new stand-alone novel.

He will host a free meet-and-greet to launch his book from noon to 2 p.m. April 19 at Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th St., Mpls.

“The Lonely Veteran’s Guide to Companionship”: by Bronson Lemer (University of Wisconsin Press, $19.95)

I picture a character like X-Men’s Nightcrawler, a creature I emulated in my twenties with my constant moving, my nonstop wanderlust. Job to Job. Place to Place. Boyfriend to Boyfriend. I never stayed with anything for longer than two years. I morphed, changed, moved on when the camouflage wore off, when I realized I would probably never fit in. — from “The Lonely Veteran’s Guide to Companionship”

(Courtesy of the University of Wisconsin Press)

St. Paul resident Lemer’s book of interconnected essays is not about warfare. Yes, the author served in South Korea and twice in Iraq. But this is really the story of a gay man trying desperately to be seen, which is difficult because he always holds back a part of himself, instead forging new personas of a confident, outgoing man.

In memories that drift between past and present, he recalls trying to fit in, as when he goes with members of his platoon to meet “juicy girls” in Korea. When one woman tries to make contact, he nearly freezes with embarrassment. And so he becomes rootless, spending two years teaching in China, then teaching on a Navy cruiser carrying missiles, always striving for what seems to be an unreachable goal of becoming a different person. Happily, he does find love and marriage in the end as he settles into the man he was meant to be.

Lemer, a fine writer, is the author of “The Last Deployment: How a Gay, Hammer-Swinging Twentysomething Survived a Year in Iraq.” He will introduce “The Veteran’s Guide …” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls., in conversation with author Chris Stedman, religion and philosophy professor at Augsburg University.

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