Grand Old Day in St. Paul is this Sunday, June 6, which for many is the official start of summer in Minnesota. The music, reflecting the vogue, is a little mellower in spots—Jeremy Messersmith, Chooglin’, First Communion Afterparty. But there’s still plenty of hard beats—Dessa, Doomtree, Heiruspecs—and that’s just the hip-hop. Hookers & Blow, featuring the boys from the Honeydogs, will play. And when G.B. Leighton takes the stage, it’s really officially summer.
The free MOSAIC Festival takes over downtown Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon and evening, around the Pantages, Orpheum, Hennepin Stages strip at 8th and Hennepin. MOSAIC celebrates diversity in the city by showcasing 40 local music, dance, and performance troupes (reggae to capoeira to tango to steel drums), and food from the Midtown Global Market, with a street festival and performances in adjoining theaters. At 7:30 p.m. in the Hennepin Stages theater, you’ll also find the first annual Minneapolis Talent Show—I have high hopes for this evening, as there have been several semi-finals in local schools, with hints of everything from dance to gymnastics to a 9-year-old Michael Jackson imitator. Oh. Yeah.
The Ordway Center and surrounding parks host the annual International Children’s Festival on Saturday and Sunday, with theatrical performances from around the world inside the Ordway (truly the best of many countries, for just $5 a person), out in Rice Park, etc.
Stevie Ray’s perennial improv-comedy on the lawn shows, once held near Lake Harriet, have moved to Minnehaha Park, specifically in the bandshell near the Sea Salt restaurant on Sunday late afternoon.
Peter Buffett—the musical son of Warren, not Jimmy—plays the Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant at 4 p.m. on Saturday, then moves over to Mission restaurant in the IDS Center for a book signing and cocktail reception at 6 p.m. A major philanthropist, Buffett is donating the concert proceeds to the Courage Center.
Open Field at the Walker Art Center also kicks off this week—take advantage of the cocktail lounge outside, hang out on the grass, check out some toys from the Open Field shed, etc.
Cantus sings at the Ritz Theater this weekend, it’s annual cover-song concert.
And you’ll find plenty of hand-made goods and art both Saturday and Sunday at The Talent Show, an arts and crafts event in Minneapolis’s Kingfield neighborhood at Rau+Barber.
