The Minnesota Yacht Club Festival expects to draw 60,000 people to St. Paul despite recent flooding at the riverfront venue.

This is the inaugural year for the music festival, which will hold 20 concerts over two days, featuring big-name stars such as Alanis Morissette, Gwen Stefani and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The shows are happening on two outdoor stages at Harriet Island, which was several feet underwater in early July.

“Mother Nature played in our favor for this one even though she gave us a slight scare,” said St. Paul Parks and Recreation Director Andy Rodriguez. “It was a bit of a curveball. We didn’t expect to be dealing with a flood a couple weeks out from this event.”

The Mississippi River in St. Paul rose just above 20 feet before cresting on June 29, marking its eighth-highest crest ever.

The major flooding left playgrounds and pavilions at Harriet Island submerged.

The river has gone down 11 feet since then, just in time for the festival to go on as planned.

“It’s a major deal. It’s the first major music festival in St. Paul in over 10 years,” Rodriguez said.

He said recent sunshine helped dry out the park.

The city also had 30 workers on site every day for two weeks doing cleanup and inspections.

“The biggest thing was the soil saturation. We have to make sure for these stage structures and everything else that the ground is firm and that they can withstand all that weight,” Rodriguez said. “All these facilities and buildings we have on the island we have to check for their integrity, right? We have to make sure they have electricity, that the plumbing is operating correctly, that all these things can function the way that they need to function.”

Rodriguez said they also brought an engineer on-site for soil testing.

“When you have a flood, you have a lot of debris you have to clean up, so tree branches and things that come from the river. You have a lot of silt built up in a lot of places, so we have to actually test that for contaminants,” Rodriguez said.

Despite the major flooding, Rodriguez said festival organizers did not have to make any major changes.

“I think they had to make a slight modification to the VIP area due to some standing water but nothing significant, luckily,” Rodriguez said.

If you are heading to the festival, organizers note there is no on-site parking.

They recommend parking on the other side of the river near downtown, which is a 10 to 15-minute walk to the festival.