Courtesy of IFest-MN
If you grew up in or around the Twin Cities, you likely remember taking a field trip to the Festival of Nations. It was a highlight of the school year—from trying a variety of global foods and watching captivating performances to fishing dollar bills from your pocket to buy a one-of-a-kind treasure from the international marketplace.
Run by the International Institute of Minnesota and dating back to 1936, the Festival of Nations was a chance for students and adults alike to experience the rich tapestry of cultures that call Minnesota home. But, like so many beloved traditions, the event was disrupted by the pandemic; after being on hiatus since 2019, organizers announced the festival’s permanent cancellation in 2023. The news marked the end of a cultural touchstone for generations of Minnesotans, leaving the community to wonder what, if anything, would take its place.
Three years later, a reimagined event (with some returning faces) is stepping up to answer the call. The inaugural International Festival of Minnesota, otherwise known as IFest-MN, will take place April 10-11 at the Saint Paul RiverCentre, bringing together over 70 ethnic groups to showcase Minnesota’s diverse heritage through food, music, art, dance, traditions, and cultural demonstrations.
Courtesy of IFest-MN
The Power of ‘If’
After the cancellation of the Festival of Nations was announced, former director Steve Heckler started receiving messages from the public. One thing was clear: They wanted it to come back, and he agreed with them. “I was thinking, ‘We really need this event,’” he says. “It’s very important to our community and a lot of the folks [who] live here, and we really need to bring this thing back.”
At that point, Heckler, who also founded and ran the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, had been retired since 2023. He wasn’t planning on returning to work but soon realized he was one of only two people who knew the full extent of how to run the Festival of Nations—and the other had moved out of state. “It was kind of in my hands,” he says.
To see if a rebirth of the event was feasible, Heckler contacted several former colleagues who had previously worked on the festival and was met with overwhelming excitement. “This is one of the largest events I have ever done, and I couldn’t do this myself,” he says. “It’s a group effort happening here.” Heckler registered the new event as a 501(c)(3) organization, and the independent board of directors now sits at just 25 people, all volunteers—some of whom have 50 years of experience with the festival. Heckler asked everyone for two things: a one-year commitment to get a new event off the ground, and for their help in finding young people to replace them in the future.
Thus, the planning process began. Seven years removed from the final Festival of Nations in 2019, Heckler and his team were faced with a few questions: How many ethnic groups will come back and participate? Will people buy tickets? Will anyone support them? Additionally, the world looks much different now than it did seven years ago, and Heckler wanted to make sure they were keeping up with the times. “We wanted something different, but it’s hard to do that when you’re in it,” he says.
In other words, there were a lot of “what ifs”—which, coincidentally, became a guiding principle of the festival’s comeback. When selecting a new name, Heckler landed on IFest-MN to mirror other international festivals around the country, many of which use a lowercase “i” in their branding, he explains. But upon meeting with a branding expert, they decided to move forward with an uppercase “I” to emphasize the word “if,” a hypothetical encompassing a whole world of new possibilities.
“That branding helped pull us out of where we were, pull us out of the box we were in,” Heckler says. “We all started thinking much differently about where we could go… everything down to the theme of the festival.”
Courtesy of IFest-MN
A New Chapter
For those who attended the Festival of Nations previously, IFest-MN will feel similar to the event you know and love, with a modern twist. The festival’s theme, “Imagine IF… We All Belonged,” will serve as a throughline, Heckler explains. “How is it that a person in a culture feels belonging to that culture? What is it that makes people feel welcome? What is the belonging sense of it?” he says. “Each exhibit will have that displayed as part of the theme… the idea is it will show how their traditions work. Not just what the tradition is, but how it all functions.”
At the time of this interview, there were over 70 ethnic groups signed up to participate—largely surpassing Heckler’s original goal of 50. “It’s the only event that brings this many groups together for the purpose of celebrating the actual culture itself,” he says. “It’s not a commercialized event; we’re a nonprofit. It’s there to actually celebrate who we are as a community.”
The highlights will include three stages of global music and dance performances, a cafe featuring over 25 vendors, and a bazaar area with cultural demonstrations and exhibits from each participating group. “For a person who has been to this festival for most of their life, you would feel like you’re at the Festival of Nations,” Heckler says. “You’re going to also feel something new, something different that was not at the previous festival.”
Despite the team’s initial uncertainty around ticket sales, the community has already shown up in spades, with over 25,000 people expected to attend—a testament to the festival’s impact. “I’m just overwhelmed at how many folks feel this way,” Heckler says.
Staying true to its roots, the first day of IFest-MN will be dedicated to students, with schools traveling to St. Paul from across the Midwest to attend. “What students experience, what they learn, is that you start understanding we’re a plural community. We’re a community of diversity. You don’t always experience that,” Heckler says. “It’s an eye-opening experience. There’s a whole world out there… It’s a starting point to learn.”
As for the future of the festival, Heckler hopes to eventually hand off the reins to the next generation, settle back into retirement, and allow the event’s legacy to live on. “I’m looking forward to a plan that will make this festival go long past me,” he says. “My role here is to get this thing up and going, but what would really excite me is if young people would step up and want to be part of this, and feel the need for this type of event out there.”
