Take a bow. The 2026 Homegrown Music Festival is in the bag.
After a full week of hooting, hollering, and squeaking plastic chickens, scurrying from venue to venue, and frantically flipping through the field guide to plan next moves, the festival descended on one final location for an afternoon to wind it all down. The sun was out and, after a chilly week, temperatures rose to shorts-and-sandals levels, perfect for the groups of friends and committee members congregating on Canal Park Brewing's patio to debrief the past week and raise one last toast before heading home to do laundry.
To start the three-act line-up at Canal Park Brewing Company, Skarlett Woods’ exemplary song writing skills and virtuoso guitar playing were on full display. Leaning into the relaxed nature of the day, Woods took the stage while wearing awookieonsie–apparently inearly celebration of May 4th– Star Wars Day.
The crowd seemed to still be a fairly equal mix of Homegrown celebrators and folks who just happened to come in for a meal when Shaken Not Stirred started into their set of tunes. The four-piece group brought a bluesy classic rock vibe to the afternoon’s celebrations.
Austin Castle closed out the afternoon at Canal Park Brewing (as he'd been scheduled to do the previous year before moving to earlier in the week to fill a gap at Amsoil Arena). Castle played songs from the two albums he's released this year, including "Doin' Alright" from the newest, American Dream, which he said was inspired by a tough time when he was faced with thousands of dollars in vehicle expenses while also going through a breakup. While there's a country core to Castle's music, exemplified by the cover of Hank Williams Jr.'s "Family Tradition" in the set, the soulful keyboards and rocking guitar licks from him and his backing band showed that they're not confined to that genre.
Coverage of the Duluth Homegrown Music Festival on the North is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and by Music Go Round.
