46. Minnesota Fringe Festival
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (612) 872-1212
Description: This annual celebration of offbeat live stage performances and visual art has hundreds of shows in multiple venues throughout the Twin Cities. The venues range from well-known theaters, such as the Southern and the Bryant-Lake Bowl, to “bring-your-own” venues, such as swimming pools and condos. Musicals, puppetry, dance, theater, spoken word, and performance art are just some of the events during the festival. All performances are 60 minutes or less, and all are selected for inclusion in the festival by a lottery system rather than a juried competition, making this America’s largest unjuried fringe festival and making it a real adventure to attend. Sometimes you’ll see amazing things, sometimes you’ll see complete trash—the uncertainty is part of the fun.
47. Old Time Harvest Festival
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Description: This family-oriented festival has a vintage tractor show, a flea market, an antiques auction, and an antique car show, as well as demonstrations of threshing, sawing, spinning, and quilting. There’s even a vintage farm equipment parade each afternoon.
48. Minnesota Irish Fair
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (952) 474-7411
Description: From bagpipes to bodhrans, corned beef to ceilis, this free three-day celebration of Irish culture features Irish music, dance, theater, exhibits, sports, a marketplace, genealogy information, and a special children’s area.
49. Minnesota State Fair
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (651) 288-4400
Address: 12 days ending on Labor Day
Description: The State Fair is ground zero for what many Minnesotans consider the quintessential spirit of their state. More than 1.6 million people attend the Minnesota State Fair—usually drawing crowds of over one hundred thousand a day. The fair has big-name entertainment, exhibits, competitions, food, demonstrations, horse shows, auto races, a huge midway carnival, and lots of food on a stick. There’s also a bust of the festival’s princess sculpted in butter, farm animal shows and competitions, a huge garden show, a vintage tractor display on Machinery Hill, and juried arts and crafts from state elementary, high school, and college students.
50. Pizza Lucé Block Party
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (612) 827-5978
Description: Pizza Lucé knows what music people who love Pizza Lucé love, and each summer the pizza chain fills a stage with a parade of indie-rock bands for a daylong celebration of local music and local pizza. Is there beer? Need you ask?
51. Woodbury Days
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Description: Woodbury Days is a community event with lots of activities for the whole family, including carnival rides, games, food, the Woodbury Days Annual Bike Ride, inflatable slides, water fights, a petting zoo, the Rod & Custom Car Club Car Show, fireworks displays, a daily parade, and live music.
52. Stiftungsfest
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (952) 467-1812
Description: Stiftungsfest, founded in 1861, is the oldest festival in Minnesota.There’s something for everyone at this celebration of German heritage and culture: German choirs, dancers, polka bands, arts, crafts, ethnic foods, and beverages.
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Address: 3 miles south of Shakopee on MN 169
54. Red Stag Block Party
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (612) 767-7766
Description: The Red Stag clears its parking lot each August for one of the biggest among the numerous free block parties sponsored by local eateries. The party draws a big crowd to see big acts like Mark Mallman and Roma di Luna, with DJs spinning a hopping afterparty inside the Stag itself.
55. Excelsior Apple Day
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (952) 474-5233
Description: Excelsior Apple Day is a main street festival with antiques, crafts, apples, produce, entertainment, food, and the children’s Red Wagon and Doll Buggy Parade.
56. Sunbonnet Day
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (952) 949-8450
Description: Each September, Eden Prairie steps back in time on Sunbonnet Day, with old-fashioned wagon rides, pony rides, a farmers’ market, and games of Pennies in the Hay.
57. Johnny Appleseed Bash
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (952) 920-0595
Description: This annual benefit for St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church takes place in Utley Park. Food, live entertainment, a silent auction, a petting zoo, and pony rides are just a few of the things you can expect at this community-oriented festival.
58. Lone Oak Days
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (651) 675-5500
Description: Hayrides, farming demos, games, and self-guided tours of 1940s-era farm life at Holz Farm highlight Eagan’s heritage festival.
59. Twin Cities Marathon
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (763) 287-3888
Description: The Twin Cities Marathon’s unique scenery and aesthetics have earned it the distinction as the most beautiful urban marathon in America. It’s also ranked as one of the nation’s top marathons, period. The 26.2-mile course begins near the Metrodome in Minneapolis and finishes at the State Capitol on John Ireland Boulevard in St. Paul. The course is easy to navigate, mostly asphalt, and very scenic with mile after mile of parkways, lakes, rivers, and tree-lined boulevards. Prospective runners should register early for the race, as this race attracts contestants from around the world. Good viewing spots include the Lake Harriet Rose Garden, Minnehaha Falls, and along Summit Avenue.
60. Anoka Halloween
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (763) 421-7130
Description: Anoka celebrates almost 90 years as the self-styled “Halloween Capital of the World” with three parades and many other activities for young and old alike. The celebration begins with a football game dubbed “the Pumpkin Bowl.” Other events include cemetery tours, a house-decoration contest, ghost stories, costume contests, a haunted house, and a 5K Grey Ghost Run.