Minnesota Yacht Club was arguably Minnesota’s biggest weekend of live popular music with three packed days of entertainment at St. Paul’s Harriet Island. On Friday, July 18, beautiful weather greeted the audience — right until rain struck at the very end of Hozier’s night-closing set.

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Gigi Perez played a memorable set relatively early on Friday, bringing along a fully electric live band to give her sweeping, emotional ballads a little extra heft for the big festival crowd. Hamilton Leithauser also was an early highlight, the Walkmen frontman made a funny joke about the recent Coldplay jumbotron moment.

Sheryl Crow joked about Lionel Richie once advising her never to tell the crowd she was about to play a new song, because that’s when they’ll head to the bathroom, and ignoring Mr. Richie’s wisdom, shared a topical track called “New Normal” that she had released earlier that day.

Alabama Shakes made their triumphant return and frontwoman Brittany Howard seemed comfortable and confident back in the driver’s seat of her old band, flexing both her huge voice and dynamic guitar playing during her set, which many were calling the highlight of the weekend.

Hozier made the most of a slightly shortened set list, braving the drizzle to sing an acoustic song down in the crowd and also dueting on “Work Song” with Gigi Perez. He had to wrap up about 20 minutes early due to incoming storms, meaning that he wasn’t able to play “Take Me to Church.”

The day also featured Train, Father John Misty, and the 502s, as well as local performers Mike Kota and Maygen & the Birdwatcher.

The Crowd

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Maygen & The Birdwatcher

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Mike Kota

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Hamilton Leithauser

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The 502s

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Gigi Perez

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Sheryl Crow

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Father John Misty

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Alabama Shakes

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Train

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Hozier

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