Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak will kick-off event as local artists honor 10 countries through music, dance and performing arts

MINNEAPOLIS (July 11, 2012) Minneapolis Fifth Annual Sister Cities Day will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. at Nicollet Island Pavilion, Sunday, July 15, to celebrate the City of Minneapolis 10 official international sister city relationships. This family event and ice cream social is sponsored by the Minneapolis Global Partnership Program and is FREE and open to the public.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak will welcome festival attendees at 2 p.m. and will officially recognize the 20th anniversary of the Minneapolis/Harbin, China Sister City relationship.

Afternoon entertainment to include a special performance by Songs of Hope at 1 p.m.: This special choir is made up from children from around the globe. Songs of Hope is a performing arts summer camp for kids aged 10 and older from around the world that offers participants a unique opportunity to live in community with kids from other cultures while learning and performing music from many countries.

Additional entertainment includes:

China: Chinese opera and dance performances

Sweden: Svenskarnas Dag Girls Choir

Japan: Traditional yukata and Harajuku Lolita fashion show

Mexico: Ballet Folklórico México Azteca

Kenya: Marching & Drum group Sabathanites

A childrens activity area is sponsored by the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project and will be staffed by volunteers from Target.

Minneapolis Sister Cities program was established in 1961 with the signing of the first Sister City agreement between Minneapolis and Santiago, Chile. Additional official sister cities include Cuernavaca, Mexico; Eldoret, Kenya; Harbin, China; Ibaraki City, Japan; Kuopio, Finland; Novosibirsk, Russia; Tours, France; and Uppsala, Sweden. The newest sister city relationship was established in 2010 with Najaf, Iraq.

Minneapolis Sister Cities program is managed by Meet Minneapolis and provides global connections and exchanges between international cities and the residents of Minneapolis, with the purpose of creating cultural awareness and fostering mutually beneficial opportunities. These relationships are supported and implemented by local citizen groups in Minneapolis and have also been accredited by Sister Cities International in Washington, D.C.

Sister Cites International is a program started by President Dwight Eisenhower to foster people-to-people citizen diplomacy. Sister Cities promotes peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperationone individual, one community at a time. The International organization focuses on creating and strengthening partnerships between communities around four key themes: sustainable and economic development, arts and culture, youth and education, and humanitarian assistance.

ABOUT MEET MINNEAPOLIS

Meet Minneapolis is a private, not-for-profit, member-based association. It actively promotes and sells the Minneapolis area as a destination for conventions and meetings, works to maximize the visitor experience and markets the city as a desirable tourist destination to maximize the economic benefit of the greater Minneapolis area.

Online: www.minneapolis.org

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/meetminneapolis?ref=ts

On Twitter: http://twitter.com/meetminneapolis

MEDIA CONTACT

Beth Satrang, International Relations, Meet Minneapolis, 612-767-8112, beths@minneapolis.org

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