From birthday party to mainstay: Duluth's Homegrown Music Festival rocks into its 25th year

DULUTH — Years ago, Scott "Starfire" Lunt celebrated his 30th birthday with a lineup of local musicians, including his own alt-country band Father Hennepin, playing beneath festive white lights at a community beach house on Lake Superior — the preview to what would become Homegrown Music Festival.

The eight-day festival is now in its 25th year, a milestone of its own, and Lunt describes his relationship to it as one of an older relative.

"I'm starting to transition into feeling more like a grandpa," he said. "I can kind of walk around now and people don't know who I am."

The eight-day Homegrown Music Festival starts Sunday with about 175 local bands playing quick-hit, tightly packed sets at dozens of venues here and in neighboring Superior, Wis. Acts range from longtime glam metal band All the Pretty Horses, fronted by Venus DeMars, to fiery batons spun by the Spin Collective, to performance artists Bratwurst, known for industrial rock paired with artist Tyler Scouton's raw meat play.

As is customary, participating musicians — often dressed more for a stage than an athletic endeavor — face off in a kickball game on Saturday at Chester Bowl.

Lunt long ago passed off the behind-the-scenes duties to what is now a nonprofit organization backed by dozens of volunteers. This level of planning, he decided in its sixth year, was not his forte. Still, this is a festival Lunt sensed had legs as early as the first unofficial year. He isn't surprised that it has gone on and on — and described the mix of local music, well-timed with what is usually the start of warmer weather as "lightening in a bottle."

"I can't imagine most towns this size have as many local bands," said Lunt, whose band plays Saturday at Sacred Heart. "I don't know what the magic is. In the immortal words of Iris DeMent, 'Let the Mystery Be.'"

Cory Jezierski, interim co-director of the festival, started playing Homegrown when it was just a weekend event that had him playing stages alongside musicians he might not have otherwise shared a bill with. Now he credits the festival with getting bands into spaces that haven't always made live local music a priority.

"I don't think anyone would let it die at this point," Jezierski said of the festival. "It's a good community event. It's good for musicians, it's good for venues, it's good for fans."

Avery Sorenson, a 16-year-old fingerpicker who favors math rock and neo soul, makes his Homegrown debut on Sunday afternoon at the Duluth Folk School. He has been to a few festivals in the past with his mom, he said, and was invited to play this year after his father posted a video of him playing on social media. Sorenson said his peers, born long after the festival was established, believe it to be a folk-centric event.

"There's a lot of folk music, for sure," he said. "But I feel like there's more to it."

Sorenson will stress that in his own instrumental set, with covers of songs by Poliça and Ichika Nito. He will be followed by Dan the Monkey Man — rock 'n' roller Dan Munthe, whose kid-friendly alter ego wears ears and a tail and has a setlist of singalong songs.

This year's Homegrown marks a shift for the Gemstones honoring AfroGeode, a jazz-soul-funk band that is carrying on despite the sudden death of its founder and lead singer, Diona Johnson, 36, in early April. The group, which is scheduled for 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center Arena, decided very quickly that they would keep her project alive.

"Di was the mother figure, the spiritual figure — she was the leader," said bandmate Josh Nickila.

A two-hour band practice earlier this week extended into five as the Gemstones prepared for the festival.

"All this creativity came out," Nickila said. "Di left us, but she left us with some drive."