Taste of Minnesota will return to action — in Minneapolis

Ross Raihala, Pioneer Press
·4 min read
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After an eight year break, Taste of Minnesota will return under new ownership and in a new location, Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis.

OutKast rapper Big Boi and ’90s rockers Third Eye Blind are booked to headline the free event, which will run from noon to 8 p.m. July 2 and 3 on three blocks of Nicollet Mall, from Washington Avenue to Fifth Street. Kid Rock associate Uncle Kracker will open for Big Boi and the festival will also feature music from the Steeles, the Fabulous Armadillos, Molly Maher and others, as well as wrestling from local favorites F1rst Wrestling.

Organizers are expecting an attendance of 100,000 over the two days and Metro Transit will provide free bus service.

“With the music we’ve booked and the food we’ve booked, it’s going to be a super fun event,” said Taylor Carik, one of five members of the planning committee that is organizing the new Taste.

A wide range of food options are planned, from food trucks to cheese curd stands, with chef and restaurateur Andrew Zimmern acting as food ambassador. Unlike previous incarnations of Taste, there won’t be a food ticketing system in place: festivalgoers will pay food vendors directly.

“We want a diversity of food programming, it’s not going to be just burgers and fries,” Carik said.

Started in St. Paul

The late Ron Maddox founded Taste of Minnesota in 1983 on the state Capitol grounds. The idea was to provide a free, family friendly festival with live music and plenty of food options. It moved to Harriet Island in St. Paul in 2003 and Maddox continued to run it through 2008. New owners attempted to reboot the festival in 2010 as a paid event with $20 and $30 tickets. It turned out to be a financial disaster and the owners filed for bankruptcy.

Maddox’s wife Linda revived Taste in 2014. But Harriet Island flooding forced her to move it at the last minute 40 miles west to the Carver County Fairgrounds in Waconia. It returned to Waconia for the final time in 2015.

In 2019, Carik – who has experience staging large-scale events as a co-founder of the late Zombie Pub Crawl – and his fellow organizers acquired the Taste of Minnesota trademark with an eye toward a 2020 relaunch that was scuttled due to the pandemic.

Carik said his group looked at numerous options to stage the new Taste of Minnesota before settling on the recently remodeled Nicollet Mall. “It’s actually well suited for bigger events, that made it pretty attractive,” he said. “And for something this size, there’s only a few places we can do it.”

The planning committee and an investment group are funding the new Taste, along with a series of sponsors like Xcel Energy, Surly Brewing, the Metropolitan Council and Minneapolis Foundation. A bill has been introduced in the Legislature to fund a one-time $1.85 million grant to the Minneapolis Downtown Council to cover permits, insurance and other infrastructure.

“It’s a lot of stakeholders coming together to make this happen, not including the money potentially coming from the state,” Carik said.

New version, new place

During its initial run, it was a St. Paul tradition to complain about Taste of Minnesota, from the location (it was better on the Minnesota Capitol lawn!) to the food (it’s too expensive!) to the general atmosphere (it’s a glorified carnival!).

When asked to respond, Carik laughed and paused. “People love to complain, I don’t know what to say. We have heard in our discussions before and after our announcement that a lot of people are excited about our version of the event. There’s going to be something for everyone.”

A new inevitable complaint is downtown Minneapolis’ reputation – earned or otherwise – as a den of crime.

“Safety is definitely an issue as it is with all large events,” Carik said. “In addition to a robust safety plan, we’re leaning into the fact that one of the best deterrents to crime is programming. We’re trying to get people downtown into a space that has a lot of safety considerations in place.”

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