Highlights of the 2016 Duluth Dylan Fest: Get Your Tickets Here

Yesterday afternoon while listening to various playlists on my iTunes player the album Highway 61 Revisited came on beginning with that snare-shot heard round the world, the opening salvo of "Like A Rolling Stone", Dylan blasting out that nothing would ever be the same. It was a shot heard 'round the world, history in the making and any time I hear it after not having heard it in a while it strikes me as especially profound. The attitude. The tone. The lyrics. The sound.

Here we are more than fifty years later and it's somewhat incredible that this kid who appeared on the scene like the phenomenon he was is still out there producing records, performing with a supertight band, still remaining unpredictable.

This May, he'll turn 75 and the town of his birth will once again celebrate this passing of another year with a week long festival of events designed to honor this native son who has achieved international fame yet remained connected to his roots. He still maintains a home in Minnesota, and other examples could be cited.

A Little History
The first Bob Dylan Way birthday party was in May 2008 to celebrate the installations of the signs along Bob Dylan Way. The first weeklong Dylan Fest was in May 2011. So 2016 marks the 6th year of the weeklong fest and the 9th year of the Bob Dylan Celebrations put on by the Bob Dylan Way team. The group, however. was started in early 2007 to raise money after the City Council passed the Cultural Pathway in May 2006.

Duluth has a rich history of celebrating Bob Dylan from John Bushey’s radio show on KUMD – October marks the 25th year. To the early Dylan Birthday Party celebrations held around Duluth in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

This Year's Event Schedule

The 2016 Duluth Dylan Fest has a number of exciting events in store to celebrate Duluth’s native son Bob Dylan’s 75th birthday and showcasing the Northland’s vibrant arts and music scene.

Highlights include:
• 48 hour Dylan Film Fest
• Art Show featuring Daniel Botkin
• Duluth Does Dylan CD Release Party
• Poets from the North County featuring Duluth Poet Laurates Barton Sutter and Jim Johnson, among others
• The ever-popular Blood on the Tracks Express rolling music revue featuring local musicians and Dylan Fest favorite the Boomchucks aka The Freewheelers
• Duluth Dylan Fest Singer Songwriter Contest
• Duluth to Hibbing and Back Dylan Fest Bus Tour
• Postage Stamp Cancellation Event at the Armory Annex on London Road, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• Amory Arts & Music Center Benefit Concert: The Basement Tapes/Great White Wonder Concert
• Farewell Brunch at the Zeitgeist Café featuring songwriter Jim Hall

Noteworthy
The Duluth Dylan Fest committee is thrilled to share that a special Bob Dylan exhibit featuring handwritten lyrics, inscribed photographs, early concert flyers and more from the William Pagel Achieves will be on exhibit May 4-30 at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum.

Ticketed Duluth Dylan Fest events are available on https://www.eventbrite.com/d/local/dylan-fest/
• May 24th Duluth Does Dylan CD Release Party at 7:30 PM
• May 26th Blood on the Tracks Express Rolling Music Revue (available soon)
• May 27th Dylan Bush Tour: Duluth to Hibbing and Back from 9 AM to 5 PM
• May 28th Bob Dylan Benefit Concert for the Armory Arts & Music Center at 7 PM

All other events are free.

Please share this information with your friends and colleagues. If you have questions, please email duluthdylanfest@gmail.com or zane@northlandfdn.org.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Be part of it.