Top 10 New Things to Know About Minneapolis in 2024

What’s Coming in the New Year in the City by Nature
Great Northern snowing campfire

For Immediate Release

Minneapolis (Dec. 18, 2023) – Exciting events dot the calendar in Minneapolis for 2024, along with openings and anniversaries that will keep the city top of mind throughout the year. Here are our top 10 new things to know about Minneapolis in 2024:

  1. The Great Northern festival returns with its annual celebration of our cool, creative winters that includes more than 50 arts, food, culture and climate-focused events for visitors to participate in from Jan. 25 – Feb. 4. Highlights in 2023 include: an extended Sauna Village, The Great Northern Ice Bar and extensive food programming featuring Andrew Zimmern, Sam Kass, Sean Sherman, Zoe Francois, Gavin Kaysen and more.
  2. COOP FIS Cross Country World Cup takes the trails at Theodore Wirth Park Feb. 17-19. The Loppet Foundation and Share Winter host the Loppet Cup – one of the only World Cups to be held in a major metropolitan area – and the first on U.S. soil in two decades. Elite athletes, including three-time Olympic medalist Jessie Diggins, a native Minnesotan, will compete in a series of distance and sprint races.
  3. Minneapolis will be the final stop on the journey to the Olympic Games Paris 2024 when it hosts the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics, and becomes “Gymnastics City USA 2024,” bringing together four of the sport’s most prestigious events over the course of nine days in June. Target Center hosts the country’s best artistic gymnasts June 27 - 30 as they vie for a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team. Reigning Olympic All-Around Gold Medalist Suni Lee, who hails from the Twin Cities, and Simone Biles are expected to compete.

    Prior to that, beginning June 22, the Minneapolis Convention Center will be the site of the USA Gymnastics Championships; the USAG National Congress and Trade Show; and the USA Gymnastics for All National Championships & Gymfest.
  4. Minneapolis celebrates the 40th anniversary of “Purple Rain,” the iconic film made by our own Prince. Filming locations, First Avenue and Paisley Park will honor this anniversary with details announced a later date, and year-round, fans can explore Prince’s Minneapolis.
  5. Big 10 Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament will be held at Target Center. All 14 Big Ten Conference teams, starting with the women March 6-10, and the men March 13-17, have their eyes set on winning the conference title in downtown Minneapolis.
  6. After a $32.5 million renovation and expansion, the Minneapolis American Indian Center in south Minneapolis will reopen in Spring 2024. It is a centerpiece of Indian food, art, health programs, youth activities and commerce, including Gatherings Cafe. Founded in 1975, it is one of the oldest Indian centers in the country, where visitors can shop the Woodland Crafts Gift Shop and peruse the Two Rivers Gallery.
  7. Art Shanty Projects celebrates 20 years of immersive art on a frozen on Bdé Umáŋ/Lake Harriet, weekends Jan. 20 – Feb. 11. Artists create a temporary vibrant and colorful public art community that welcomes visitors to experience interactive and engaging art and performances around ‘DIY” shanties (temporary structures) in a truly only-in-Minneapolis way.
  8. Tony Award-winning Guthrie Theater will present an epic three-part theatrical event, “A Brittle Glory, William Shakespeare’s History Cycle,” (Richard II, Henry IV [Parts I and II as one play] and Henry V) in rotating repertory, a rare undertaking produced at this scale. Performed by a company of 25 actors, this ambitious three-play series will run March 23 – May 25 in the iconic blue building on the Mississippi Riverfront that was designed by Pritzker Prize-winner, Jean Norvel.
  9. Sound Unseen music and film festival celebrates 25 years. It is one of the premiere niche festivals in the country, dedicated to the role of film and music as a conduit of powerful ideas and diverse viewpoints. The festival will be held in Minneapolis in November.
  10. A new passenger train will launch in 2024. The Twin Cities-Milwaukee-Chicago Intercity Passenger Rail Project will add a second daily round trip passenger train on the 411-mile rail corridor (used by Amtrak’s long-distance Empire Builder) between Chicago and the Twin Cities.

More Exciting News
Why stop there when Minneapolis has so much to share? Here are some other new and noteworthy happenings in 2024 in Minneapolis:

  • James Beard-nominated chef Jorge Guzmán opens his new concept, Chilango Mex-Tex, a fun, elevated dining destination in February across from Bde Maka Ska, the largest of Minneapolis’ Chain of Lakes.
  • Diane’s Place, by James Beard-nominated Hmong pastry chef Diane Moua, will open in early 2024 in Northeast Minneapolis’ Food Building.
  • Vinai, a Hmong restaurant by James Beard-nominated chef Yia Vang, is expected to open in Northeast Minneapolis in the summer.
  • Coliseum Building, an historic Lake Street space renovated by three Black-owned business owners, will reopen in June. It will serve as a BIPOC small business incubator and house a restaurant by the owners of Du Nord Social Spirits, as well as retail space, a community and artistic hub, and office space.
  • The former chef de cuisine of Gavin Kaysen’s Demi, Adam Ritter, will open Bûcheron, a French American neighborhood restaurant on Nicollet Avenue in South Minneapolis on Jan. 9, drawing inspiration from the Bistronomy movement in Paris.
  • The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) will present a new exhibition of more than 50 documentary photographs by renowned photographer Gordon Parks exploring his unique photographic collaboration with Ella Watson.
  • Aer Lingus resumes nonstop service between Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) and Dublin (DUB) four times a week starting April 29, and transitions to daily in the fall.
  • Delta Air Lines is adding seasonal service between MSP and DUB beginning May 9 five times a week. They’re also adding new service from MSP to Turks & Caicos seasonally from January to April.
  • Lufthansa will launch year-round service between MSP and Frankfurt (FRA) on June 4, making Lufthansa MSP’s 18th airline.

Keep up in the coming year and plan your trip with Meet Minneapolis.

Additionally, learn more about Minneapolis’ Cultural Districts, that highlight the rich sense of cultural and/or linguistic identity rooted in communities significantly populated by people of color, Indigenous people and/or immigrants. An annual calendar of events provide seasonal opportunities to explore these areas further.


###


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 to the greater Minneapolis area. Meet Minneapolis is accredited by the Destination Marketing Accreditation Program (DMAP) of Destinations International.

CONNECT WITH US
Online: www.minneapolis.org
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/meetminneapolis
On Instagram: www.instagram.com/meetminneapolis
On TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@meetminneapolis
Check out media information including sample itineraries, photos and b-roll.

MEDIA CONTACTS
Kristen Montag, Senior PR Manager, o 612-767-8038, c 651-335-5754, KristenM@minneapolis.org
Kathy McCarthy, Senior PR Director, o 612-767-8048, c 612-508-9720, KathyM@minneapolis.org