After a successful launch last summer, the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival has grown for its sophomore year. The festival, at St. Paul’s Harriet Island Regional Park, has expanded from two to three days and will run Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Headlined by Hozier, Fall Out Boy and Green Day, 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.

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 $150 for one-day general admission and going all the way up to three-day platinum tickets for $2,300, which includes a number of perks including free food and drinks, front-of-stage viewing and access to air-conditioned restrooms. See minnesotayachtclubfestival.com for details.

Many of the three-day ticket packages are sold out, but each has a waitlist where fans can register. There are also verified resale tickets available through the festival’s website.

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 119 Livingston Ave. S. The festival promises “ample bike parking” located near the two entrances.

The Green Line’s St. Paul stations — from Raymond Avenue to Union Depot — are scheduled to be offline for maintenance during the festival. Green Line replacement buses will operate on a similar schedule as trains.

Getting in

Concertgoers must wear securely fastened wristbands, which will be rendered void if tampered with or removed. Wristbands that are damaged, lost or stolen can be replaced by the original purchaser one time only for $20. Patrons can leave and re-enter at will up until 7 p.m. each day.

There are guest services booths near each entrance with a lost and found. Free hydration stations are located throughout the site. Lockers are available to rent for $25 each day or $65 for all three days.

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); portable battery packs; personal-sized misting fans and hand sanitizer; prescription medicine in the pharmacy-labeled container that states the prescription, dosage and patient name; over the counter medications; and factory sealed Naloxone/Narcan kits. All bags will be searched at the gate.

What isn’t allowed

Pretty much everything you would think, including outside food and beverage; coolers; aerosol containers; umbrellas; chairs; wagons; skateboards; drones; carts; large chains or spiked jewelry; fireworks; any and all professional video and audio recording equipment; hammocks; glass containers; and illegal substances.

Who is playing

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

Friday: Maygen and the Birdwatcher (12:50-1:20 p.m.), Mike Kota (1:20-2:05), Hamilton Leithauser (2:05-2:50), the 502s (2:50-3:50), Gigi Perez (3:50-4:50), Sheryl Crow (4:50-5:50), Father John Misty (5:50-6:50), Alabama Shakes (6:50-7:50), Train (7:50-8:50) and Hozier (8:50-10:30).

Saturday: Laamar (12:40-1:10 p.m.), Raffaella (1:10-1:45), Jake Clemons (1:45-2:30), Silversun Pickups (2:30-3:30), Motion City Soundtrack (3:30-4:30), O.A.R. (4:30-5:30), Cory Wong (5:30-6:30), Weezer (6:30-7:45), Remi Wolf (7:45-8:45) and Fall Out Boy (8:45-10:30).

Sunday: Landon Conrath (12:50-1:20), Winona Fighter (1:20-2:05), Grace Bowers and the Hodge Podge (2:05-2:50), Blind Melon (2:50-3:50), Beach Bunny (3:50-4:50), the Beaches (4:50-5:50), Garbage (5:50-6:50), Sublime (6:50-7:50), 311 (7:50-8:50) and Green Day (8:50-10:30).

Related Articles

Concert review: Belcher’s violin elegant and expressive in Minnesota Orchestra’s German Romances

Paul McCartney to play his first local show in nearly a decade in October

After 22 years of marriage, The Bangles’ Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill make sweet music

Raihala: Four aging rock acts with upcoming Twin Cities shows on the books

Music in the Trees returning to Belwin Conservancy in Afton

When it was all over, and the Twins’ All-Star Game-bound ace righty had bested Pittsburgh’s All-Star Game-bound ace righty in Friday night’s classic pitchers’ duel, Minnesota starter Joe Ryan could joke about his heavy early workload.

Ryan escaped the first inning of an eventual 2-1 win without allowing a run, but only after the Pirates loaded the bases with two outs, and the Twins’ starter needed 34 pitches to get back to the dugout. He joked after the game that 34 pitches is fine for the first three innings, but a bit much for the first inning alone.

It became a rousing story, with the season’s first sellout crowd at Target Field seeing Ryan’s last appearance before he is part of the American League roster at Tuesday’s midseason festivities in Atlanta. But Twins manager Rocco Baldelli admitted a day later that he almost brought an early end to Ryan’s evening, as his pitch count reached the 30s.

“I think he was very happy with the way he went out there and competed. The way he got through that first inning, made it work. Got the outs when he needed to. That took a lot,” Baldelli said prior to Saturday’s rematch versus Pittsburgh. “That outing could’ve ended in about five more pitches. And instead of going five (innings), you end up going 2/3. It takes a toughness to get through those types of situations. And Joe continually finds ways to get big outs and get through games. So that’s where it kind of started for him, and then he settled in and threw great. That’s not surprising, to see him have a really good outing.”

Having watched many, many pitchers, both as a player and as a manager, Baldelli said he was prepared to make a change if Ryan would have approached the 40-pitch mark in Friday’s first inning.

“No one’s fine after throwing 40 pitches in an inning. Nobody’s fine. We can say they’re fine, but they’re not fine. The players might say they’re fine, but they’re not fine,” he said. “So that’s a lot of work. That’s two and a half innings worth of work in a really compressed time frame. So all that said, he wasn’t going to throw too much longer. He might have had one more hitter in him, and that would have certainly been it for Joe. And that’s just probably just too many pitches, we’re just calling it what it is.”

Instead, Ryan’s 34th pitch coaxed a pop-up out of Pirates infielder Ke’Bryan Hayes, and he needed 52 more pitches to get through the next four innings. Improving to 9-4 on the season, Ryan allowed five hits and struck out five.

With the head-to-head matchup versus Pirates righty Paul Skenes, who will start the All-Star Game for the National League, Ryan said the key was escaping that rocky first inning without a Pittsburgh player reaching home plate.

“You know there’s not going to be a ton of runs scoring that day. So you just want to minimize as much as you can and I think we did a very good job of that early,” Ryan said. “And then the bullpen locked it and did an outstanding job, so that was great to just hold it and get a team win.”

Matthews headed east

The team announced prior to Saturday’s game that Twins right-hander Zebby Matthews will report to the St. Paul Saints to begin a rehab assignment on Sunday.

Matthews has been on the team’s injured list since early June with a strained right shoulder. He has a 1-1 record this season as a starter but has been unavailable for the past 33 games.

His last win came on June 4 in a 6-1 victory over the Athletics in Sacramento.

Related Articles

Joe Ryan survives early struggles as Twins beat Pirates ace Paul Skenes

Baldelli says marquee pitching duel is “must-see TV”

Twins prep for all scenarios ahead of Sunday’s first round of the MLB Draft

Twins can’t complete sweep as Cubs’ bats finally wake up

Byron Buxton misses Cubs series finale with hand bruise. Will he be back this weekend?

CHS Inc. officials notified local officials and the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development that the company plans to permanently close the largest grain elevator in the Twin Ports.

The facility in Superior will cease operations effective Aug. 31, according to the notice provided to the Department of Workforce Development. CHS has not yet made a public announcement or responded to an inquiry from the Duluth Media Group.

The decision has been decades in the making with the decline in the volume of grain that transits through the Superior terminal, said John Griffith, senior vice president of global grain marketing for CHS.

“It’s not just a CHS decline,” Griffith said. “It’s an entire grain export from the Duluth-Superior port that has declined over the past couple of decades, and it finally reached the point where there wasn’t the critical mass of grain movements through the port anymore.”

He said with the progression of larger unit trains, and new facilities, grain can be moved to deep-water ports and moved on larger ships that have lower costs for transportation to reach the same customers.

“I think that has been kind of the evolution over time that has brought us to this point after nearly 90 years in the port,” Griffith said.

The difficult part of the decision was the employees, Griffith said.

The closure will impact 23 union employees, who will be permanently separated from the company Sept. 8. Two additional employees will continue to work until about Dec. 31.

“My heart goes out to them,” said Rep. Angela Stroud, D-Ashland, who was notified about the closure by company officials Thursday, July 10. “I understand it. I, myself, just got laid off last year. It’s extremely disruptive, and you know, frankly, depressing and scary. So, I understand what they’re going through and I really feel for them, and I’m here to help in any way I possibly can.”

Stroud encouraged anyone who has difficulty with the unemployment system to reach out to her office for assistance.

“It’s devastating anytime you lose a significant employer,” Stroud said.

Exports falling for decades

Superior Mayor Jim Paine, who was briefed on the closure Thursday morning, said he was told the reason is tied to the global economy and global shipping routes.

“It’s obviously bad news, especially for those employees, and we need to do what we can to take care of them, but this is one of the challenges of working with commodities-based industry,” Paine said.

Exports of grain by ship from the Port of Duluth-Superior have been falling for decades, down from a high of 9.2 million metric tons in 1978 to 645,000 tons in 2022, the lowest since 1890.

Related Articles

New lawsuit seeks to redraw Wisconsin’s congressional maps before 2026 midterms

Judge recommends that case against Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan proceed

St. Croix motorcyclist dies of injuries from July 3 crash

2 killed in St. Croix County head-on crash

Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority strikes down 176-year-old abortion ban

The 2023 and 2024 shipping seasons were only slight improvements at 790,000 and 794,000 tons, respectively, according to port statistics. That is driven, in part, by a changing market.

For example, soybeans now go by rail to the West Coast, and the geographic area where grains were harvested before being sent to the port for transport has shrunk, among other factors.

And in late 2022, fewer ocean-going vessels, or salties, were reaching Duluth with wind turbine components, making it less likely — and more expensive — to send empty salties into the westernmost port on the Great Lakes.

Part of the problem was the war in Ukraine, which shifted European demand for corn and beans from the Black Sea to some Great Lakes ports like Chicago and Toledo. Salties discharging in lakes Michigan, Erie or Huron are less likely to sail empty to the Port of Duluth-Superior to fill up with grain, CHS officials said at the time. The war continues more than three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a major agricultural producer on the continent.

Despite lower shipping figures, grain has still moved through the Twin Ports by train, including at CHS. However, unlike shipping’s tonnage reports, the amount of grain moved by rail is not public.

Potential reuse of facility

“The CHS decision to cease operations at its Superior terminal is a disappointing blow to the Port of Duluth-Superior and the community as a whole,” the Duluth Seaway Port Authority wrote in a prepared statement. “Most immediately, our thoughts are with the employees who will be affected by this decision. We will work with the city of Superior to seek solutions that could lead to a more positive outcome, and hopefully, continued use of this grain terminal.”

“Those are really large and effective grain elevators so sitting empty and doing nothing is not its best future,” Paine said.

Stroud said she asked what would happen to the facility, and CHS representatives said they would be available to help transition the infrastructure CHS owns to any entities that might be interested.

Related Articles

Working Strategies: Second Sunday Series: Resources to navigate an AI world

Job scams are on the rise and more people are falling for them. Protect yourself with these tips

Musk’s latest Grok chatbot searches for billionaire mogul’s views before answering questions

Strike to end Saturday for health care workers at Stillwater clinic; issues not resolved

What happens to authorized users when the primary credit card holder dies?

“It’s very possible that … another company would have interest in doing very similar activities at the facility,” Griffith said. “The facility is certainly still operational, so we will look to disposition the facility in the most effective and thoughtful way possible, up to and including a sale of the facility,” Griffith said.

“This is bad news for that pier and that terminal, but in terms of the port overall, the port is still growing, and the port is still performing very strongly,” Paine said. “We just had that $28 million investment in C. Reiss just a little ways over. There’s still growth and strength in global shipping, but it is a moving economy.”

Reporter Jimmy Lovrien contributed to this story.

Amy Lindgren

Second Sunday Series – Editor’s Note: This is the eleventh of 12 columns on AI and work, appearing the second Sunday of each month, from September through August. Last month’s column discussed AI as a core skill, while previous columns looked at AI issues for writers; AI tools for organizing or conducting the job search; interview prep; resumes and cover letters; best practices for companies using AI; tips for using ChatGPT; work opportunities with artificial intelligence; AI use in the hiring process; and an overview of artificial intelligence in general. Amy Lindgren

I’ve been sipping from the proverbial fire hose for a year now, while researching the use of AI in job search and the workplace. And, while I’ve shared a couple dozen websites and tools related to specific tasks (such as interviewing or résumé writing), I haven’t yet offered a more general set of resources.

There’s a reason for that: Fire hose again, coupled with intermittent kinks and leaks. Some of the sites I’ve used shifted into sales mode on me, while others have turned out to be one-trick ponies. I generally have better luck with books in both regards, although they can get outdated fast.

With all of those caveats, here we go — resources that you might find helpful as you launch or continue your own journey into the untamed world of AI.

Posts that include helpful lists or tips

I’ve focused here on job search, while trying to limit the sell-you-something sites. Not so easy, but these four mostly meet the criteria.

• “Job Search Tips: 10 AI tools to help you land your next job” by Kiera Abbamonte, July 2025: https://zapier.com/blog/ai-job-search/

• “A curated list of 20 AI tools, 60 creative strategies to harness the power of ChatGPT” (and more): https://offers.hubspot.com/ai-job-seeker

• LinkedIn posts from Adam Broda. An Atlanta career coach (www.brodacoaching.com), Broda posts practical tips for using AI. The links are cumbersome for a newspaper article, so try a general internet search using “Adam Broda AI advice” and “Adam Broda ChatGPT advice.”

• The nonprofit SkillUp.org offers this brief list of AI job search tools: https://skillup.org/resources/ai-job-search-tools — but do explore their other offerings, such as free and low-cost career counseling and training.

Training

Talk about abundance. Just for starters, there are too many YouTube videos on using AI to even consider listing. I’m going a different direction, limiting myself to just two recommendations.

• Coursera. This is the online training platform I use, mostly because I like their pricing model: Free for some offerings, and the option of a monthly or annual subscription to access almost anything else on an all-you-can-learn basis. A quick look at their catalog — https://www.coursera.org — shows courses ranging from simple (“AI for Everyone”) to full certificate programs. Bonus: They’re running a sale on annual subscriptions ($240 instead of $399) until July 21.

• Syntax and Script. In a heroic act of generosity, fashion-professional-turned-techie Chika H. Orji has curated and posted a list of 77 free online AI training programs, current as of June 2025. You can download the list as a pdf from her website: https://syntaxandscript.com/free-online-ai-courses/ Her blogs are also worth visiting, just for the perspective of a career-changer whose tagline is “Come on a tech journey with me.”

Books

Books are still my personal go-to resource for a broad perspective or in-depth analysis and steps on just about anything. Although this is my curated list, I’ve only had time to review one. And yikes — I’ve definitely tried to identify and avoid AI-written books about using AI. That’s just a bit too meta for me.

• The Author’s AI Tool Kit, by Hank Quense, self-published, 2025. This is the book I have actually read, and I can recommend it as a resource specific to novelists and writers who want to leverage AI in both writing and marketing their work. The primer on creating ChatGPT queries is especially useful.

• Generative AI for Dummies, by Pam Baker, 2024.

• The AI-Driven Job Search Roadmap, by K.L. Cardozo, self-published, 2025.

• The AI-Savvy Job Seeker, by Michelle Dumas, Distinctive Career Publishing, 2025.

• Career Coach GPT, by Jeremy Schifeling, self-published, 2023.

And that, as they say, is that. Not nearly everything available, but enough resources to get you started. If you have others you’ve enjoyed using, send them my way and I’ll put them in the column. In any case, do come back next month for my wrap-up on this year-long series of articles on the use of AI in job search and the workplace.

Related Articles

Working Strategies: Random thoughts: ‘Office,’ not ‘work;’ on-the-job training

Working Strategies: Adjusting to, and surviving, return-to-work

Working Strategies: Do you have a bucket list for your career?

Working Strategies: Competing offers prove both a good, and bad, dilemma to have

Working Strategies: Using AI while maintaining core skills

Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.