Living in Minnesota comes with certain expectations. We expect the winters to be cold and brutal and the summers to be darn-near perfect.
And, because Minnesota is unofficially the most hipster state in America, we have the right to expect an unparalled local music scene. Because of this, it’s Minnesota’s time to shine in the national festival spotlight.
Minnesota does have its fair share of smaller music festivals, such as Basilica Block Party, Rock the Garden and, most recently, Festival Palomino. While these festivals are fun, their lineups are mediocre and have the potential to be better. It’s time to implement a music festival on a larger scale in Minnesota — think WE Fest Country Music
Festival, but for the masses.
For several reasons, Minnesota is an ideal location for a large-scale music festival like Lollapalooza. We have a large amount of potential land. A festival such as this could be held in one of our city’s parks. Or there are other options like Canterbury Park. Most importantly, the area is ripe with potential sponsors.
Summit Brewing is headquartered here, as are a handful of other Fortune 500 companies that have the capital to back a potential project.
The opportunity to make revenue from a festival is also promising. On the high end, large-scale festivals like Coachella bring in upward of $40 million.
I understand that getting the community behind such a large undertaking is crucial. Raising capital will also be labor-intensive. However, I believe that the revenue and attention that Minnesota could gain is worth the effort.
It’s time to put the local music community to the test and see what we can do with an event of this size.
People flock from all over to go to California. It’s Minnesota’s turn. Now, who would headline this festival? Well the choice is obvious — Prince, of course.
