Great Northern Festival returns in 2023 to celebrate cold and combat climate change
The Great Northern Festival is back this winter to celebrate the cold months, once again with a particular focus on climate change.
This winter’s Great Northern Festival will run Jan. 25 to Feb. 5, 2023 — dates that encompass some of the Twin Cities’ classic winter traditions, including the Winter Carnival in St. Paul and the Luminary Loppet and U.S. Pond Hockey Championships in Minneapolis. Organizers boast more than 60 events during the 10-day festival; many are in Minneapolis but some are in St. Paul, and all are meant to keep our minds and bodies active as the temps plummet.
The festival’s climate change-focused programming is extensive and aimed at how to stop the shifting global weather patterns that could jeopardize our colder months. Music producer Brian Eno and guitarist Donna Grantis, who played alongside Prince as a member of 3rdEyeGirl, will discuss the role of the arts in the climate crisis; other discussions bring together architects, youth activists, representatives of tribal nations, and scientists. Radio host Krista Tippett will stage a live recording of her popular podcast, “On Being,” with biologist Janine Benyus, and death care advocate Katrina Spade will discuss her company Recompose, which offers composting instead of more traditional funeral options like burial or cremation.
“Our cold, snowy winters shape our culture, and they are at risk as the climate continues to warm,” said festival director Kate Nordstrum, in a statement. “With The Great Northern, we want to motivate festival-goers to take steps to preserve the gift of winter.”
The 2023 festival gives folks plenty of opportunities to directly embrace the outdoors: In one workshop, you can join artist Seitu Jones in ice-fishing for carp and documenting the invasive species using Gyotaku, a Japanese printmaking style. In another, a variation of previous years’ festival programming, you can learn breathwork and participate in ice-exposure therapy inspired by the Dutch athlete Wim Hof. And to warm up, the new Great Northern Sauna Village will consist of more than 15 saunas over at Malcolm Yards, in Minneapolis’s Prospect Park neighborhood.
The festival’s focus on climate change and the natural world is reflected in art around the Twin Cities, too. One of the festival’s flagship installations will be around Lowertown; “Our Common Home” uses computer vision to create scenes, projected on buildings in Mears Park, CHS Field and Union Depot, that interact with viewers’ movements and represent our impact on the world. The dance and visual project “Invisible Cities,” presented at the 2022 festival as a work-in-progress, will stage its world premiere this time around. Plus, at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, noted contemporary orchestra Alarm Will Sound will perform music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams — who will also be in town for the festival — that evokes regional birds’ calls.
There’ll be some food and drink on offer throughout the festival, too, though perhaps less than in previous years. The food collective K’óoben — a.k.a. Gustavo Romero of Nixta Tortilleria, José Alarcón of Centro, Mike Hidalgo of Colita, and Noe Lara of BLVD, plus others — will stage a winter-inspired pop-up. An opening night party on Jan. 25 at Surly Beer Hall, and a closing party, on Feb. 5 at the nearby Malcolm Yards food hall, will also feature food and drinks; a full list of foodie partnerships and plans is still in the works, festival organizers say.
The full festival schedule is online at thegreatnorthernfestival.com/2023. Certain events are ticketed; prices vary. Some workshops and experiences allow drop-in participation, and others — including most of the climate programming — are free but require pre-registration online.
Great Northern Festival: Various locations around Minneapolis and St. Paul from Jan. 25 to Feb. 5, 2023.
