Taste Of Minnesota: Now more expensive and still not that great
Fuckin' Hagar
More Just Announced
Taste Of Minnesota is one of those events you don't necessarily look forward to, but you always end up going because it's free, it's outside, and it's something to do. Not anymore. This year, if you show up before 4 p.m., you'll pay $20 to get in; after that you'll pay $30. What do you get for the money? That's where things get a lot less tasty.
In the festival's best years, the lineup has offered one older but perpetually cool act to get excited about, like Blondie, The Go-Gos, or Elvis Costello. This year we get... Sammy Hagar and 311. In planning the July 2-5 schedule, Taste's new owners had a different radio station sponsor the mainstage each night, and the results are not the least bit surprising. Cities 97 still swoons over Counting Crows, KQ wants to get drunk with Sammy, 93X continues to coast on the Hot Topic culture of the '90s, and The Current is the only station willing to take a gamble on artists with less than 20 years of experience.
On the bright side, this sort of demographic targeting makes choosing which day to go really easy. (But what do we know? Maybe Minus The Bear and the guy from Foreigner have a lot of fans in common.)
There are still several holes in the full schedule, but here's the bulk of the main stage lineups.
July 2 (The Current)
Headliner TBA, Dawes, Justin Townes Earle, Minus The Bear
July 3 (KQRS)
Sammy Hagar, Lou Gramm (Foreigner), John Waite
July 4 (Cities 97)
Counting Crows, Needtobreathe, Gin Blossoms
July 5 (93X)
311, The Offspring, Pepper
