Got big plans in Duluth this week? Who doesn’t?

DULUTH – Fresh from the runner’s high of Grandma’s Marathon weekend, when thousands of athletes and their posses descended on this city, an upcoming week of high-draw events is expected to bring thousands more.

Here is what’s ahead in this “pretty little city built on a hillside,” as the once-local band Trampled By Turtles, who play Saturday at Bayfront Festival Park, call it in their song “Winners.”

Much of the action is centered at Bayfront Festival Park, the basin-shaped harbor-side venue where it’s not uncommon for a ship to pass behind the stage midconcert — an occurrence so Duluth-y that it feels like a caricature.

Hairball, which covers the songs and theatrics of arena rockers like AC/DC, Journey, KISS and more, annually plays on the eve of July 4 and regularly brings one of the biggest crowds to the park. Fourth Fest, on Friday, includes bounce houses, live music, and acrobatic skydivers before the main event: a fireworks display over the water.

Duluth-bred Trampled By Turtles returns for its yearly concert here on July 5. Expect to weep when the night starts to fall and singer-songwriter Dave Simonett starts waxing poetic about his former hometown.

All told, up to 27,000 people could pass through the park during that three-day span, according to Duluth Entertainment Convention Center spokeswoman Lucie Amundsen.

The U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels are the main event of the Duluth Air and Aviation Expo July 5-6 at the Duluth International Airport. Canadian Forces Snowbirds are also in the lineup, which performed a free demo over the harbor last summer for the first time in more than a decade.

Also: parachutists and other performance pilots.

Organizer Ryan Kern said he expects 50,000 will be in attendance over two days with 85% coming from outside Duluth, mostly from the Twin Cities area.

In 2023, Minnesota Star Tribune reporter Richard Chin hitched a ride in the backseat of a Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet. He wrote of barrel rolls and loops that surpassed an amusement park thrill ride in his closeup look at being a Blue Angel.

“I experienced negative Gs, positive Gs and zero gravity,” Chin wrote in a column about the experience. “We flew as slow as 100 miles per hour and almost as fast as the speed of sound.”

Keen-eared locals have likely already heard the sounds of practice flights.

Yes, there is. Hotels, hostels and Airbnb rentals still have rooms available, but it’s going to cost more than it would during a less idyllic time of year.

Duluth doesn’t slow down once the Trampled By Turtles merch has been packed up, the Blue Angels fly home and Hairball unzips itself from its pleather cage.

Looming large on the horizon: Mama Duck.

The world’s largest rubber duck has been added to this year’s Festival of Sail July 10-13. The inflatable oddity looms large adding either a charming, or horror movie, aesthetic to photos from the shoreline.

The regularly scheduled Tall Ships event features a parade of replica ships available for touring, daytrips and gawking. This year’s lineup includes Gen. George Patton’s schooner When and If, Pride of Baltimore II, Inland Seas, St. Lawrence II and more. The Festival of Sail took place in Two Harbors in 2022.

For those looking for more interaction with the harbor, USA Diving’s Superior High Dive Challenge makes its debut during the Festival of Sail. Ten elite competitors will launch themselves from a 65-foot custom-made platform and into the Duluth Harbor. Two to watch: Minnesotans Nate Jimerson and Maya Kelly.

And for construction nerds: All of this happens along the newly constructed seawall behind the DECC.

Dead Man Winter, which includes members of Trampled By Turtles, plays a show at 5 p.m. Friday at Bent Paddle. Paddlin’ for the Boundary Waters is a fundraiser for BWCAW conservation, so expect to drop cash in the bucket.

Downtown Duluth Days, formerly known as Sidewalk Days, is July 9-10 at the heart of the city. There will be food trucks, group workout classes and family-friendly activities in addition to the Classic Car show on Superior Street between Fifth Avenue West and Third Avenue East.

On July 10, the Cactus Blossoms headline a block party in front of Fond du Luth Casino. Boxcar opens.