Duluth Water Is Life festival features Indigo Girls, Low, Ani DiFranco

5 reasons to soak up Duluth's Water Is Life festival with Indigo Girls, Low, Ani DiFranco

Sunday's all-day lineup at Bayfront Festival Park will focus on Indigenous-led environmental issues with a women-heavy music lineup.

By Chris Riemenschneider Star Tribune

September 1, 2022 — 5:00am

It has turned into one of the most spirited and adventurous music festivals in Minnesota. Now, what exactly is Water Is Life?

Happening again Sunday at the best outdoor venue in the state — Duluth's harborside Bayfront Festival Park — the one-day musical marathon is put on by Indigenous environmentalist activist Winona LaDuke's nonprofit organization Honor the Earth with production support from First Avenue. It's mostly a music thing, but there's a lot more to it.

The event was organized last August on a weeknight with short notice and Midwest indie-rock stars Bon Iver and Hippo Campus as headliners. This year, it has moved to Labor Day weekend with a lineup that's a bit truer to Honor the Earth's folky, women-led roots.

Here are five reasons to consider attending:

1. Women anchor the music lineup. It's almost like a Lilith Fair revival this year with Honor the Earth co-founders the Indigo Girls as headliners, along with indie-folk troubadour Ani DiFranco, hot Americana innovator Allison Russell, Native American tunesmiths Tia Wood and Annie Humphrey, and Minnesota music favorites Dessa, Gaelynn Lea and Low. What a nice contrast to the many bro-flavored festival lineups around the state this summer.

2. Indigenous singers and speakers take center stage. Besides the aforementioned Wood and Humphrey — the former a rising star from Vancouver, and the latter another Minnesota music stalwart — the fest will feature Joe Rainey, recently featured in the New York Times for "upending expectations for Indigenous music" with his new album "Niineta." Blues-rocker Corey Medina and songwriting vet Keith Secola are both on the lineup, too, welcome holdovers from last year. Also, actor D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai from the hit Hulu series "Reservation Dogs" and model/activist Quannah Chasinghorse have been added as hosts, and LaDuke and other Native speakers and spiritual leaders will be featured between sets.

3. Finally a chance to see the buzzy Allison Russell. While she did tour to Minnesota with her former group Birds of Chicago, the Canadian singer has yet to perform locally since the release of last year's Grammy-nominated breakout album "Outside Child," an inventive blend of jazz, twang and R&B. She has a truly colorful live act now, with an all-female band that moves and grooves as a celebratory spectacle.

4. And a chance to support hometown heroes Low. Duluth's internationally renowned rock trio had to postpone overseas dates this fall because of ongoing cancer treatments for drummer/co-vocalist Mimi Parker, but she and husband/bandmate Alan Sparhawk did not want to miss this meaningful gig on home turf. Few experiences are more Duluthian than seeing Low perform there by the water.

5. It might not quite be as divisive as last year's. The message is the same: Fight global warming and don't let oil and mining companies damage sacred and/or environmentally sensitive land, especially sites near vital waterways. But it will not be as centered around the unsuccessful, hyperlocal fight against the Line 3 oil pipeline, for which people were very deeply dug in on both sides of the debate in 2021. What's so funny about peace, love and honoring the Earth?