Minneapolis, MN
5 ways to celebrate the cold at the 2024 Great Northern Festival
Building atop several landmark winter events in the Twin Cities, the Great Northern Festival is set to kick off this week.
The festival, which runs Jan. 25 to Feb. 4, aims to celebrate the cold weather and spark conversations about protecting the winter season from climate change. The festival’s dates also encompass the St. Paul Winter Carnival, the City of Lakes Loppet in Minneapolis and the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships.
The organization expanded its leadership structure last year: Kate Nordstrum transitioned from a role as director to one as chief programming officer, allowing her to focus more deeply on festival curation, and artist and nonprofit leader Jovan Speller Rebollar stepped in to run the festival’s administration. This change is a sign of the festival’s long-term strength, Speller Rebollar said earlier last year.
“I think it’s really cool to be able to take something that maybe people shy away from — the cold, being cold, being out in the cold — and finding community within that,” Speller Rebollar said when she started the job in May 2023. “Flipping that idea on its head, and making it something people can look forward to.”
The festival boasts a full schedule of music, art, food and climate conversations. The full calendar, including registration links, is at thegreatnorthern.swoogo.com/2024.
Here are five ideas of what to do at the Great Northern this year.
1. Attend the Climate Solutions Series
Conversations all day Jan. 27 and 28: Attend any or all the sessions at this two-day discussion series on various solutions to climate change.
Highlights include conversations about building a more climate-friendly fashion industry; spotlighting the role of artists, designers and architects; understanding the intersections of winter sports and climate; and thinking critically about food with former White House chef Sam Kass and TV host Andrew Zimmern.
American Swedish Institute: 2600 Park Ave, Minneapolis. Event is free, but you have to register online.
2. Drink at the 100-foot ice bar
Various hours throughout the festival: Ice company Minnesota Ice has created a massive ice bar that is set to stretch an entire block in downtown Minneapolis.
The bar will offer a standing menu created by Adam Witherspoon, who has run some of the top bars and beverage companies in the Twin Cities. Plus, every day, visiting bartenders will create special featured drinks; guests include folks from Earl Giles Distillery, Libation Project, Meteor Bar and more.
Downtown Minneapolis: exact location TBD. Drinks: $5 for kids bevs and beer; $10 for non-alcoholic cocktails; $15 for full-proof cocktails.
3. Learn from place through Dakota traditions
1 to 3 p.m., Jan. 28 or Feb. 4: This session invites you to experience land and water in the Twin Cities through the lens of Dakota stories and spirituality — and, hopefully, start to reconsider your own relationship to the world around you.
This participatory session, offered by the Minnesota Humanities Center, sold out quickly last year. This year, it’s being offered twice, but be sure to buy a ticket in advance online. If you go, meet at the Thomas C. Savage Visitor Center at Fort Snelling State Park; the experience is outside, so dress appropriately. To park onsite, you’ll also need a one-day Minnesota State Parks vehicle permit ($7).
Fort Snelling State Park: 101 Snelling Lake Rd., St. Paul. Tickets are $30; purchase in advance.
4. Eat at the K’óoben pop-up
6 to 9 p.m., Jan. 30: This collaboration of high-powered Twin Cities chefs and cocktail mavens sold out super-quick last year, so snag a ticket for the 2024 edition if you can.
The K’óoben collective itself focuses on the roots of Mexican cuisine — the name is the Mayan word for kitchen or stove — and is composed of chefs Gustavo Romero, José Alarcón and Noe Lara. At the Great Northern this year, they’re focusing broadly on the Minnesotan immigrant experience by inviting Yia Vang (of Union Hmong Kitchen and the forthcoming Vinai), Peter Bian and Linda Cao (of Saturday Dumpling Co.), and Baaska Tegshbileg (of Cobble Social House). Mingle with the chefs, taste their small bites and listen to live music.
Glass House: 145 Holden St N, Minneapolis. Tickets are $100; purchase in advance.
5. Celebrate the ‘Midwinter Melt’
5 to 9 p.m., Feb. 2: Groundhog Day feels like the midpoint between winter and spring, organizers say, so this event offers plenty of ways to get outside and active on a frozen lake.
Enjoy kicksledding, light shows, walking trails, solar lamp-making and a “cosmic footgolf” course — think putt-putt meets kickball. Arrive at 5 p.m. for a soup dinner and DJ set courtesy of the group Melanin in Motion; the other events start at 6.
Silverwood Park: 2500 County Rd E, St Anthony, 55421. Event is free; no ticket required.
Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota weather: Gorgeous Sunday with a warmer Monday ahead
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – A sunny and warm Sunday is in store for the Twin Cities, with even higher temperatures expected on Monday before a chance of rain and cooler air returns later in the week.
Sunday forecast
Local perspective:
Sunday is starting with some cloud cover before sunshine moves in with highs near 70 degrees around the metro and southern parts of the state.
Winds will be much lighter than Saturday, coming from the south at 5 to 10 mph with only occasional gusts up to 15 mph.
The Brainerd Lakes area will see temperatures in the 60s, while the North Shore will be cooler, which is typical for this time of year.
Sunday’s weather is expected to be dry and pleasant.
Overnight, temperatures will drop to the upper 30s and lower 40s, with some clouds moving in ahead of Monday.
Extended forecast
What’s next:
Monday could be the warmest day of the week, with highs in the lower 70s for the Twin Cities and some spots in southern Minnesota possibly reaching close to 80 degrees.
Winds will shift from southerly to southeasterly and then easterly as the day goes on, but should remain light.
After the warm start to the week, a cold front will move through on Tuesday, bringing a chance for a few rain showers in the early morning.
Temperatures will likely drop to the upper 40s by Wednesday and Thursday, with another front possibly bringing showers late Friday into early Saturday.
The rest of the extended forecast calls for temperatures close to or just below average, with highs in the upper 40s to lower 50s.
The Source: This story uses information from the FOX 9 weather forecast.
Minneapolis, MN
Man found dead in south Minneapolis house fire
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Firefighters are investigating the Minneapolis’s second fire fatality of the year after a man died in a house fire Saturday afternoon.
Fatal fire on 28th Avenue South
What we know:
According to the Minneapolis Fire Department (MFD), fire crews arrived shortly after 1:00 p.m. and found smoke coming from the second floor of a single-family home on 28th Avenue South. Bystanders alerted firefighters that someone might be trapped inside.
Crews had to work through heavy debris to reach the upstairs area. It took about 40 minutes to fully put out the fire.
During the primary search, firefighters found a man in his 60s dead on the second floor. No one else was found after searching all the floors.
Minneapolis Animal Care and Control took in a dog found outside the home.
Assistant Chief Wes Van Vickle said, “The department is grateful to the neighbors who alerted fire crews that someone may still have been inside, allowing them to act quickly.”
Fire safety reminders and community response
What they’re saying:
“This afternoon’s tragic loss of life weighs heavily on all of us, and we extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased,” said Van Vickle.
He also encourages the public to regularly check and maintain smoke detectors and fire extinguishers at home.
There were no other injuries reported. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner is working to confirm the man’s identity.
What we don’t know:
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, and the man’s name has not been released.
Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota serves as the flagship for nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests against Trump
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Organizers of Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies across the country are predicting that the protests against the actions of President Donald Trump and his administration could add up to one of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history, with Minnesota taking center stage.
Organizers say more than 3,100 events have been registered in all 50 states, with more than 9 million people expected to participate.
And they’ve designated the rally at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul as the national flagship event, in recognition of how the state where federal agents fatally shot two people who were monitoring Trump’s immigration crackdown became an epicenter of resistance.
Headlining that observance will be Bruce Springsteen, performing “Streets of Minneapolis,” which he wrote in response to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and in tribute to the thousands of Minnesotans who took to the streets over the winter. Springsteen’s Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour, which has a “No Kings” theme, kicks off Tuesday in Minneapolis.
Minnesota organizers have told state officials they expect 100,000 people could converge on the Capitol grounds, where last June’s event drew an estimated 80,000 people.
The St. Paul rally will also feature singer Joan Baez, actor Jane Fonda,Sen. Bernie Sanders and a long list of other activists, labor leaders and elected officials.
The White House dismissed the nationwide protests as the product of “leftist funding networks” with little real public support.
“The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
Rallies are also planned in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, Ezra Levin, a co-executive director of Indivisible, a group spearheading the events, said in an interview. Countries with constitutional monarchies call the protests “No Tyrants,” he said.
For those unable to attend in person, another activist group, Stand Up For Science, is hosting a “virtual and accessible” event online.
National organizers told reporters in an online news conference Thursday that they expect Saturday’s protests to be larger than the first two rounds of No Kings rallies, which they estimate drew more than 5 million people in June and more than 7 million in October.
“This administration’s actions are angering not just Democratic voters or folks in big blue city centers – they are crossing a line for people in red and rural areas, in the suburbs, all over the country,” said Leah Greenberg, the other co-executive director of Indivisible. “The defining story of this Saturday’s mobilization is not just how many people are protesting, but where they are protesting,”
Two-thirds of the RSVPs have come from outside of major urban centers, Greenberg said, listing registration surges in conservative-leaning states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Louisiana, as well in competitive suburban areas of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.
“Millions of us are rising up from all walks of life, from rural communities to big cities at No Kings,” said Katie Bethell, executive director of MoveOn, another major organizer. “And as we do so, we will send the loudest, clearest message yet that this country does not belong to kings, dictators, tyrants. It belongs to us.”
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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