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:

Tickets

As of Wednesday afternoon, tickets were still available at a number of price points, starting at $135 for one day general admission (or $255 for two days) all the way up to platinum tickets for $925 ($1,395 for two days), which include a number of perks including free food and drinks, front-of-stage viewing and access to an air-conditioned lounge. See minnesotayachtclubfestival.com for details.

Many of the general admission and general admission plus tickets are sold out, but there are verified resale tickets available, some at lower prices than face value.

Getting there

There are two entrances to the festival. The main entrance is at Harriet Island Boulevard and South Wabasha Street, while the west entrance is on West Water Street between Bidwell Street and Plato Boulevard.

There is no on-site parking at the festival, but its website lists numerous downtown St. Paul parking lots that are a 10- to 16-minute walk from the site. Several Metro Transit buses stop a half-mile from Harriet Island. The rideshare drop off is at 49 E. Fillmore Ave. The festival promises “ample bike parking” located near the two entrances.

What is allowed on site

Feel free to bring: Small clutch purses and fanny packs (6” x 9” or smaller) with no more than one pocket, all other bags must be clear and smaller than 12” x 6” x 12”, empty hydration packs and reusable water bottles, strollers, frisbees, binoculars, blankets, basic cameras (no detachable lenses or other accessories), sunscreen in non-aerosol containers (3.4 ounces or less), personal-sized hand sanitizer and factory sealed Naloxone/Narcan kits.

What isn’t allowed

Pretty much everything you would think, including outside food and beverage, coolers, aerosol containers, umbrellas, chairs, wagons, skateboards, drones, fireworks and illegal substances.

Getting in

Concertgoers must wear securely fastened wristbands that are available at the box office. Wristbands can be activated online to add an emergency contact and to use for cashless transactions (with a pin number). Wristbands that are damaged, lost or stolen can be replaced by the original purchaser one time only for $20. Patrons can leave and reenter at will up until 7 p.m. each day.

There is a guest services tent that has earplugs and a lost and found. Free hydration stations are located throughout the site. Lockers are available to rent for $25 each day or $48.50 for both.

Who is playing

Gwen Stefani performs at a welcome reception for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative leaders Nov, 15, 2023, at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

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Doors open at 12:30 p.m. There are two stages, with staggered performances that do not overlap.

Friday’s schedule includes: Harbor and Home (12:45-1:15 p.m.), Gully Boys (1:15-2), Michigander (2-2:45), Morgan Wade (2:45-3:45), Durry (3:45-4:45), Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (4:45-5:45), The Head and the Heart (5:45-6:45), Gwen Stefani (6:45-8), the Black Crowes (8-9) and Alanis Morissette (9-10:30).

Saturday’s lineup includes: Nico Vega (1-1:30), Bugsy (1:30-2:15), Wilderado (2:15-3), Soul Asylum (3-4), Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue (4-5), Hippo Campus (5-6), the Hold Steady (6-7), the Offspring (7-8), Gary Clark Jr. (8-9) and Red Hot Chili Peppers (9-10:30).

Burnsville officials announced Wednesday that Crystal Lake Beach has re-opened after testing for E. coli indicated it is safe for swimmers.

The city closed the beach on Tuesday due to to high levels of E. coli bacteria.

Bacteria occur naturally in the environment, but high levels of E. coli bacteria may indicate contamination from decaying matter and animals. Also, periods of hot weather often contribute to high levels. When testing reveals high levels of bacteria levels, beaches close to prevent the spread of illness.

Burnsville conducts the tests from Memorial Day until Labor Day. If the level exceeds the standards set by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the beach closes temporarily until the readings return to a safe level.

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St. Paul’s Downtown Improvement District is poised to double in size, adding all of Lowertown and residential properties in an effort to fund more litter pick-up, graffiti removal, street greeters, bicycle patrols and other support services downtown.

The St. Paul City Council held a public hearing Wednesday on the proposed district expansion, which has been promoted by a coalition of businesses through the St. Paul Downtown Alliance and drew a long line of supporters to council chambers, including developers like Rich Pakonen and Sherman Associates. A final vote is likely next Wednesday.

“We really, really appreciate your engagement, and will rely on that in the months and years ahead,” said Joe Spencer, president of the Downtown Alliance, addressing the residents, property owners and business owners in the room.

Several supporters said they were downtown condo owners who had seen an uptick in homelessness downtown since the outset of the pandemic and felt that calling police was not always the right solution when problems occur.

“If it’s the way that it’s currently working, where people have been assisted with the support they need, that will be a huge help for the low income, both for residents and for the people who need help,” said Subir Chatterjee, a downtown resident who serves on the board of the Downtown Alliance.

Quality-of-life issues

Among potential initiatives, alliance members have even floated the idea of funding a community prosecutor in the city attorney’s office to focus on quality-of-life issues downtown, a proposal that appears to have received mixed reviews from City Hall.

Downtown Alliance members say that since the launch of the city’s Downtown Improvement District in 2021, quality-of-life calls to police have fallen by 40% within the district’s boundaries, even as they increased in other parts of downtown. When the DID launched, St. Paul was believed to be the largest city in the nation without a downtown improvement district.

“In our experience, the services provided by the downtown improvement district have (added to) a really positive perception of safety and vitality in the district,” said Alyssa Schlander, a senior director for public affairs with Securian Financial. “We believe that the program is a practical and effective way to supplement city services to ensure that appropriate attention is paid to our public environment in downtown.”

If the district expands as planned, its annual budget would grow from $1.3 million to about $2.75 million. St. Paul would pay in $439,000 and Ramsey County would pay in $243,000. The rest would be covered by the private sector.

After a 40% discount for residential properties compared to commercial buildings, the average annual payment for condo owners will be $65, according to organizers.

Objections

During Wednesday’s council meeting, longtime city resident Paul Pfeiffer objected to the prospect of potentially creating more interactions between law enforcement and the homeless.

“I’m disappointed by the lack of empathy displayed by both the council and the Downtown Alliance because expanding enforcement and prosecution … will likely impact one of our most vulnerable populations, who frequently have nowhere left to go,” Pfeiffer said.

Some property owners have balked at the prospect of adding new fees to support services they say the city could and should be providing anyway, like bike patrols. They’ve called the added costs detrimental to efforts to add more housing downtown.

An attorney for the property owners behind the U.S. Bank Center on Fifth Street, Alliance Center on 6th Street, the Degree of Honor building on Cedar Street, 375 Jackson Street and a dozen other downtown locations submitted a formal letter of objection last week to the city council.

Attorney Kelly Hadac noted the departure of storied St. Paul engineering firm TKDA from downtown, the recent decision by Lunds & Byerlys to reduce its hours and the decision of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to leave U.S. Bank Center as evidence of downtown’s challenges.

“There is rampant homelessness and drug use. Restaurants have gone out of business,” Hadac wrote. “Businesses have gone bankrupt. Large buildings are vacant. … This is not a time to increase the financial demands upon the owners of real property in downtown St. Paul. … The property owners already pay millions in taxes.”

Raising the possibility of legal action, downtown building owner Dave Brooks called the DID expansion “a waste of money and energy (during) some very hard times for our city.”

“The building owners pick up their own trash, power wash the gum off the sidewalks, get rid of the graffiti, move along the homeless,” said Brooks, in a recent email. “If there is a problem there’s 10 cell phones that are calling the police. We supply that service. We don’t need to have the Downtown Alliance … tax (us) approximately $3 million.”

Addressing the council on Wednesday, Brooks expressed concern that burgeoning efforts to convert empty office buildings downtown into residences may be hampered by new fees.

“St. Paul right now is in a very delicate situation,” he wrote. “Buildings are empty. Plan is to try to get more housing in downtown St. Paul, but then they will be taxing the renters. … I think the Downtown Alliance has to step back, let the city heal a little bit for a couple years and see which way we’re going and revisit what needs to be done.”

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The building that housed the south metro’s last remaining Kowalski’s grocery store, which closed earlier this year, is poised to become a place of worship despite concerns from some Eagan residents.

River Valley Church intends to move its operations to 1646 Diffley Road, where it will provide worship services, Sunday School programs and weekly Bible studies after a conditional use permit was approved by the Eagan City Council earlier this month.

The nearly 39,000-square-foot building is to be owned and managed by commercial real estate firm Hempel Real Estate, with River Valley Church acting as the tenant.

According to the proposal, the building will have a maximum occupancy of 400 people and will include a 1,000-square-foot café to be open to the public and a 6,000-square-foot commissary kitchen that will be used to prepare food “for off-site distribution primarily to local schools and operated by the same restaurateur as the café.”

The area, located at the corner of Diffley Road and Johnny Cake Ridge Road, is zoned for “neighborhood business” and includes a gas station, drug store, gym, nail salon and banks.

Community concerns

Prior to the approval, Eagan residents wrote to city council members with concerns that ranged from traffic and noise pollution to objections over a religious institution where they would prefer additional retail.

A petition organized by nearby residents said, “We believe that maintaining the former Kowalski’s storefront as a retail space aligns with the best interests of our community and ensures the continued economic growth and cultural richness of our neighborhood.” The petition included over 140 signatures.

Some residents who wrote in emphasized the potential strain on traffic and how it could affect other businesses in the area.

“This proposal will lead to potentially 400 people attempting to enter and exit this location all at the same time and will create unsafe traffic conditions on Diffley Road and major congestion on Johnny Cake Ridge Road,” wrote Margaret Jacot. “This will also prevent people from patronizing the other businesses at this site.”

Other community members wrote in with concerns about River Valley Church, which is a part of the Assemblies of God denomination, due to their beliefs.

“My family and our neighbors appreciate the quiet and inclusive community we have created and do not want outside organizations known for their non-inclusive opinions and policies,” wrote Beth Bishop.

“Churches can definitely be a positive part of a neighborhood. But this church is not shy about their very negative stance on LGBTQ+ people,” wrote Eagan resident Rebecca Ruddy.

According to the position papers of the Assemblies of God, “Sexual acts outside of marriage are prohibited as sinful.” The statement goes on to define sexual acts outside of marriage to include “adultery, fornication, incest, bestiality, pornography, prostitution, voyeurism, pedophilia, exhibitionism, sodomy, polygamy, polyamory or same-sex sexual acts.”

River Valley Church did not respond to a request for comment.

Founded in 1995, River Valley has 11 church locations near the Twin Cities including Apple Valley, Lakeville, Minneapolis and Woodbury.

“I think a lot of people would prefer to see a grocery store or restaurant,” said Councilmember Gary Hansen at the July 2 city council meeting.

“Philosophically, I have some concerns,” Hansen said. “To give voice to the concerns that have been expressed, I am going to vote no.”

The other four members of the council voted in favor of the permit.

Shifting addresses

With approval for the new location, the church plans to leave its current Eagan building at 875 Blue Gentian Road, where it was operating under an Interim Use Permit which expired this month, according to the proposal.

The Kowalski’s store, which opened in 2008, closed Feb. 24 of this year “after seeing disappointing sales after numerous grocery stores opened in Eagan,” according to a letter submitted to Eagan city officials from Hempel Real Estate.

“We do not take this decision lightly,” said Kris Kowalski-Christiansen, CEO of the grocer, about the closure in February. “We have done business in and partnered with the wonderful Eagan community for 16 years.”

Now the nearest Kowalski’s for south metro residents is 11 miles away on St. Paul’s Grand Avenue.

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