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Homegrown Music Festival 2021: Day 8

A chalk drawing of a chicken wearing a jean jacket with Happy Homegrown written below it on a sidewalk
Christine Dean for KUMD
The KUMD Homegrown chicken immortalized in chalk by Annmarie Geniusz outside 2104
Screenshot of a livestream of a seated man playing guitar and sining into a microphone
Credit Still of Duluth Cider livestream
Charlie Parr livestream from Duluth Cider

This year's virtual Duluth Homegrown Music Festival ended with a showing of Charlie Parr's Duluth Cider performance from early in the pandemic, at a time when artists were just figuring out the livestream thing. Despite playing to an empty venue, Parr gave an engaging performance that was worth a second look, or first look for those who'd missed it the first time.

Following Parr was a repeat of the four-plus hours of new material compiled for this year's Homegrown. The Homegrown committee did an excellent job of compiling an eclectic mix of virtual local performances that couldn't quite fill the void of live music, but came close. One benefit of a virtual Homegrown is having the option of watching it at leisure; all of this year's Homegrown livestreams are available on the Duluth Homegrown Music Festival YouTube channel.  The virtual content also gave former Duluthians the chance to follow along with all of the festivities from afar; there was chatter from Homegrown committee members online about finding a way to continue to incorporate some virtual content into future festivals.

Headshot of a man with a green background wearing green lipstick
Credit screenshot from the Duluth Homegrown Music Festival 2021 video
Sadkin's stylish video for Carrera

While things weren't quite back to normal in 2021, in some ways, with just one venue, Earth Rider, for live music for just a few nights, this year's festival felt a little like a throwback to Homegrown's early days, when it  was a little party Duluthians threw for themselves once a year, and where you'd see everyone you knew. As the festival expanded to 8 days and over 200 acts and began drawing large amounts of out-of-towners, it lost some if its intimacy; you could go all week without running into a good friend, depending on your musical itineraries. It was fun, but bittersweet, to recapture that early spirit of Homegrown; here's hoping 2022 finds us back to crowded bars rubbing elbows with strangers and celebrating all of the creativity Duluth has to offer.

Christine is The North 103.3's Music Director, a host of Music Through the Day, and the producer of Live from Studio A. One of her favorite things about her job is the opportunity to share music from the Twin Ports’ many talented local artists. In her spare time she takes full of advantage of Duluth’s outdoors opportunities.
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