With the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden providing a cool backdrop for a full day of music, eight bands lit up Rock the Garden’s two stages at the Walker Art Center earlier this summer. The sun was shone brightly, and thousands of people braved the heat to see The National, Courtney Barnett, X, Heart Bones, deM atlaS, Bad Bad Hats, Adia Victoria, and The Beths. Copresented by the Walker Art Center and 89.3 The Current.
A constant blur of activity, the National, just announced as headliner for Rock the Garden 2019, seems to be on an infinite cycle of LPs, singles, music videos, and tours. Yet each member of the band somehow retains a robust personal life that involves many other creative projects—from side gigs with bands like EL VY and Big Red Machine to film scoring, collaborations with visual artists to classical composing—each one informing another and serving as both a testament and a proving ground for the National’s ever-evolving sound.
Launched by the Walker in 1998, Rock the Garden has gone from an intermittent street jam to an off-site extravaganza on Boom Island, a parking ramp rave to, in 2019, a two-stage affair in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Here’s an authoritative look back at the festival's history, from Antibalas to Wilco.
