Minnesota, United States — Events
May Day Festival
After the long cold winter the people of the Twin Cities are very eager to turn out to celebrate the arrival of spring at the Minneapolis May Day Parade and Festival. Costumes, floats and street performers make up a wonderful creative parade through downtown, ending at Powderhorn Park where all manner of entertainment, including several puppet shows, goes on. The food and activities on offer are ample to keep everyone happy for the day.
Minnesota Renaissance Festival
The Minnesota Rennaissance Festival is a month-long fair recreating life in 16th-century Europe. Held on a 22-acre (89,000 sq meter) field in Jonathan, Minnesota every autumn, the festival offers food, shopping, and entertainment all designed to be as authentic as possible to the era. You can sample foods like turkey legs and apple tarts or the favorite Barbarian Burger while you take in a round of jousting or catch medieval comedy with performers like Zilch the Torysteller. You can visit the royal court, or you might even catch a real medieval wedding!
Minnesota State Fair
Dubbed the ‘Great Minnesota Get-Together’, the Minnesota State Fair is eagerly anticipated by locals every year, taking advantage of the beautiful late-summer weather to attract millions of people for food, music, rides and more fun. The Midway offers dozens of rides and games for all ages, while the livestock competitions offer farmers the chance to show off their prized animals. The Fair started out as an event for farmers, so there are still machinery shows, but that has become secondary for most people with the concerts, exhibits, and shows.
Anoka Halloween Parade
The Anoka Halloween Parade is a big event in a little town. It was the first city to host a Halloween Parade in 1920, and has officially been designated the ‘Halloween Capital of the World’ by the US Congress. The city’s festivities include a bonfire, beauty pageant, 5k race (in costume, of course), ball, ‘Pumpkin Bowl’ football game, haunted houses, wine tastings, home decorating contests, and no less than three parades. The main event is the Grand Day Parade, held on the Saturday before Halloween.
St Paul Winter Carnival
Back in 1886 a New York journalist described St Paul as being ‘unfit for human habitation in the winter’. Locals were not going to take this insult lying down and decided to turn the snowiest spot in the States into a winter wonderland. Since then the tradition of building an ice palace - nowadays a spectacular walk-through castle of ice - has become entrenched, along with the huge party that goes along with it. Each year the crowning of King Boreas and the Queen of Snows heralds the start of three weeks of frozen fun with events like ice sculpture contests and a torchlight parade.
