Contact us
Back to All Posts

Fun, fun, fun rises from this annual Affair and its accompanying music, and that’s not just a bunch of blustery hot air.
The Hudson Hot Air Affair is all about revelry, and there are some music and nightlife activities lesser-known than the balloon launches that this year go far toward that end. So with the entertainment emphasis, it’s fitting that this year’s theme is “Silver Screen.” Here are some of the activities:
— The Hangar Taproom of the American Sky Brewery on Swasey Street, south of Fleet Farm, has bands that promise to make the trip through the industrial park worthwhile. On Friday from 6-9 p.m. are area favorites the Tommy Bentz Band, which specializes in, amongst other things, pop-meets-rock takes on Beatles songs that have won them acclaim. On Saturday from 5-8 p.m. is Joe Carey, who along with his band feature a unique guitar playing style that began forming in, literally, a garage when Joe was a preteen. He even plays virtually all the instruments on one of his CDs.
— Downtown, Urban Olive and Vine has Jazz Savvy on Friday evening and Quinn and Meyer on Saturday, starting early at 6:30 p.m. — at about the same time as the Friday torchlight parade set for downtown. Jazz Savvy gives a sound you might not expect to hear locally, steering away from the usual jazz standards to give the audience an experience that is different every time, its members say.
Quinn and Meyer, a male and female combo who have great range in their voices, mix in a little mandolin and harmonica with song selections that include old time and folk music and also go far from the usual, with some of their cover songs being lesser-heard versions of songs from other artists. One thing that makes them unique is that they frequently switch instruments back and forth, including all of the ones adorning their stage.
— The American Idol connection to Hudson, in its multiple forms, lives on. Idol finalist Reed Grimm, in addition to family members Jennifer and Trey, will perform an empty bowls and concert for charity at Hudson High School auditorium on Saturday. There will be an empty bowls homemade soup for goodwill donation from 5-7 p.m., with music from 7:30-9:30 p.m. with proceeds benefiting Youth Action Hudson and Hudson SAFE. Concert general admission tickets are available at County Market and Family Fresh Market.
— Rounding out the music options connected with the Hot Air Affair are deejay music at Dick’s Bar and Grill on Friday and Saturday starting at 10 p.m., which gives a chance to mingle with the pilots, and karaoke in an intimate setting at the bar at the Hudson Bowling Center on both nights, a venue not far from the Moonglow or Field of Fire that’s Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
— A Taste of the Flyway Silver Screen Edition, a sampling of spirits, wine and beer, along with decadent chocolates and artisan cheeses, is Saturday from 7:30-10 p.m. at the Hudson House Grand Hotel. Sponsors are 45th parallel Spirits, Villa Bellezza Winery and Pitchfork Brewing Co. All these are from the St. Croix and Mississippi River Valleys.
— Other noteworthy Hot Air Affair events are balloon launches at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and at 3 p.m. on Saturday, and smoosh boarding at 1 p.m. Saturday. All are at the Rock Elementary School grounds.
— For a different visual and otherwise sensual experience, check out the sixth annual Sexy in the City Ladies Night Out at Woody’s in Bayport on Saturday starting at 6:30 p.m. There are about a dozen vendors from area businesses such as boutiques, a deejay, drink specials, prize giveaways and sampling of wine and spirits.

Share the Post:

Related Posts

  • Nothing says Mother’s Day Beauty like a concrete culvert on the edge of your small yard, blocking the view of the flowers, as they start to bloom. To serve you better by (finally) getting at that drainage problem, and giving you instead, from your fave rocker, a whole buncha gray to look at, not RWB. But you can’t fight either city hall, or a utility company, or both.
An elderly mom got an early Mother’s Day gift, courtesy of three entities who gave: Her a condo made-a stone-a, AT&T and a muddy spring. All combined to take her request for a properly drained stretch of slight ponding, a size of a grown corn stalk and about 30 feet long, between her walkout patio and the edge of the condo association land, where she has planted a few small sets of flowers at which to gaze as she passes away the last of her days, which one hopes are still many and not spent in a daze. The whole...
Read More
  • The Aves and the have nots. The fans cried foul, over too many goals and too few penalties. Putting a man in that box, so he could not fill the net, would help the Wild aplenty. (However wait, the Wild have now flipped it in game three by making a statement. But now their backs are up against the wall.) But spring temps hopefully will hold, and Saturday’s game three and its outdoor watch party held at home will hasten how soon we forget the Colorado debacle, and make it more like Dallas. Recently it’s been viewing from inside the sports bar the away games and in-arena ice of Colorado, amidst our own tundra and its just frozen flowers. Must suck also to be a retail manager and having to decide how many potted ones to put out.
The Wild in their series with The Aves, have generated more cuss words then goals — although there have been quite a few of those too — from those fans watching in Hudson sports bars. Nine and Five scored by the foes make Fourteen, and hey that could be a song title, although a little long — like all the remote slapshots the Wild has been accused of taking. Maybe less of a bust for beer sales. Shit, my team is falling behind further, so yes, I’ll take another. The nets are burning from pucks ripping through, just like your...
Read More
  • Earth Day? Spring warming up, or more cold? To change it up, spring training delivers a fastball? Or chill out, go officially fishing, although you might strike out? Our mom rules. Does she profit from cards, and go fish, though not poker face? For a few days, the sequence of events, one following another, then soon following another, dominates out calendar’s agendas. And my rambling writing, (which includes siding with Cinco.)
Earth Day came and evening went, the first trial. Our earth is still spinning. Spring also has unsprung, the second day. Flowers but also buckthorn grow. Renewal commences. May Day has passed into the past, the third trial. But regimes still falter and fall. And we harken to it, despite the prospect of potentially going fishless, on this differs-by-state opener. It was cold, to boot. Do trout like such water? They did on one side of the boat in Jesus’ time. — This is not the walleye they are known for, but otherwise the pick of the litter, for Cinco...
Read More
  • Iron Trump? Bring the frump? Or dump? Bump it up and do The Humpty Hump? Here is yet another song of a generation, yet another parody of Iron Man by Black Sabbath, (it might help to go through the original lyrics first), and it is Ozzy approved as he is one of our children of the grave, and as so is one of the allegedly foggy ones, (no I would not allege that!!)
This is my ode to a couple of old Geezers, as in Butler who wrote words like no other, and like the Foggy Geezer beer often on special, over at Casanova Historic Liquors in Hudson. In the style of Iron Man, by Black Sabbath Iron Trump Lyrics by Joe Winter Riffs by Tony He Owes Me? I am rustic man … I have a rusty plan … Has mad mind lost its way Dull forked tongue or things to say Bomb, make Iran pay Before leaving office or he’ll stay Mine is the Master Plan So mine the straits fast...
Read More
  • I shot at the Prez, riff to follow. That riff created a last ruckus of a row of roundball, even if just for an inbounds pass — once they sorted it out at midcourt, but only first after they had sorted it out with sports bartenders having little difficulty transferring from game host ABC, who trumped it, to affiliate network ESPN, for the last quarter and ticks of a clock.
The Wolves ran away with another one in their first postseason series, ratcheting up a third win in their fourth game, but it was not without flareups that literally stopped the clock, temporarily, as seen at two different Hudson sports bars. First, it was near the end of the third quarter and the T-Wolves had built a lead by a bit more than a three, which they would extend to several groups of cheering fans by the time there was a second or two left, and that would quickly become the problem. The game with Denver was on ABC/ESPN, and...
Read More
  • Pristine Boundary waters may now be tainted but not your CBD. And the alleged villian is Chilean, not Mexican or Venezualian. And the village ‘repossessed’ your garbage can and made you buy an officially approved new one. Welcome to 4-20 and Earth Day, circa 2026. And Mary Jane is now declassified by Trump for purposes of ‘study.’ This is not the Obama or Biden administration.
Social media commentators at all levels and news media alike are — just in time for Earth Day — mining the latest Boundary Waters area news with headlines about the latest rollback of Obama and Biden era environmental protections to pristine water quality for what can, legally, be done with potentially destructive commerce in that region, passing the Minnesota legislature by the narrowest of margins. The reactions have ranged from who cares, to asking if our legislators do care, about the plan to mine metals, backed by a Chilean corporate giant, whose name sounds like a death metal band, and...
Read More
Scroll to Top