Visitors to the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival enjoy the first day on Harriet Island

Aside from a big-name band that abandoned the sinking ship at the last minute, the first day of the new Minnesota Yacht Club Festival at Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul otherwise went smoothly.

Yacht Club, which continues Saturday, is the first major rock and pop festival on Harriet Island since Live Nation’s River’s Edge Music Festival in 2012. Despite promising a five-year commitment to St. Paul, the concert promoter lost so much money that it pulled out after just one year.

Live Nation owns 51% of Yacht Club promoter C3 Presents, an Austin, Texas-based company that is also behind the Austin City Limits Music Festival, the Voodoo Music + Arts Experience and the modern-day Lollapalooza. But Live Nation appears to be letting C3 go its own way.

Some concertgoers complained about the prices of food and drinks and the long lines, but in terms of getting there and the grounds, the infrastructure and the general atmosphere, C3’s experience in organising festivals was evident late Friday afternoon when Joan Jett and the Blackhearts played an hour-long set to a large, grinning and dancing crowd. (Promoters have not released attendance figures but said they expect more than 30,000 people to attend both days.)

On Thursday, Yacht Club announced on social media that reunited Southern rockers Black Crowes had canceled their scheduled 8 p.m. performance on Friday due to an “illness in the band.” (The Crowes did not address their absence online, however.) Rather than find a last-minute replacement, the festival reworked the schedule and gave several acts more time on stage. Local band Durry was moved nearly two hours later in the schedule for a performance that began at 5:40 p.m., while Seattle indie folk band Head and the Heart took over the Black Crowes’ scheduled 8 p.m. performance.

Local favourites Gully Boys opened the festival at 1pm on the smaller stage, followed by fellow local bands Harbor and Home on the main stage. From then on, performances alternated between the two stages, with only a few minutes between bands.

Appearances by hot country artist Morgan Wade and indie rockers Michigander paved the way for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, who earned acclaim for their famous covers of “Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah),” “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” “Crimson and Clover” and “Everyday People,” as well as the band’s originals “I Hate Myself for Loving You” and “Bad Reputation.” They also covered the Replacements’ “Androgynous,” with Jett paying tribute to the late Minneapolis band and its leader Paul Westerberg.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter took the stage before Gwen Stefani’s performance and asked the crowd to applaud the police and other city employees who made the festival possible. He also suggested that the festival be held for a second time in 2025.

Stefani — who was billed as a headliner along with Alanis Morissette, Friday’s final act, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Saturday’s main attraction — performed with dancers and video at a volume that seemed louder than the previous bands. She told the crowd that her brother-in-law is from Minnesota, making her a local, so to speak. She then brought in her husband, former “The Voice” coach Blake Shelton, to sing her current single, “Purple Irises.”

It’s been around 18 years since her last major solo hit, but Stefani has remained in the spotlight thanks to her celebrity husband and the semi-regular duet singles they’ve released over the past eight years. Stefani and her band No Doubt reunited in April to headline the Coachella festival to great acclaim, but have yet to announce any future plans together. Whatever happens, Friday’s crowd — which consisted mostly of geriatric millennials and Gen Xers, as well as a handful of baby boomers — gave Stefani a warm welcome that matched the ideal summer weather that graced the festival on Friday.

The Minnesota Yacht Club Festival concludes on Saturday with a program that includes Soul Asylum, Hippo Campus, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, The Hold Steady, Gary Clark Jr., The Offspring and Red Hot Chili Peppers.