After a well-attended return last summer from a three-year hiatus, Grand Old Day will once again mark the start of summer in St. Paul.
The one-day street festival, which bills itself as the largest such event in the Midwest, is set to take place Sunday, June 2, along Grand Avenue. This year’s event will include six music stages, a parade, beer gardens, a 3K fun run and live wrestling.
As for music, co-presented with Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current, local pop band Yam Haus will headline. The rest of the music lineup will be announced over the next month or so, said Chris Jensen, who leads the Grand Avenue Business Association and co-chairs Grand Old Day.
Wristbands for the beer garden are now on sale at $10 a pop, and can be purchased online. Grand Stage VIP passes — which include beer garden access, two free drinks and a special lounge and stage viewing area — are also on sale for $75.
Grand Old Day, which began in 1973, was not held from 2020 through 2022 due both to the pandemic and to serious financial and organizational challenges within GABA, which was completely reconstituted in 2021.
The 2024 festival will have a smaller footprint than last year thanks to road construction, Jensen said, so the festivities will run along Grand between Snelling Avenue and Dale Street, rather than stretching west beyond Macalester College.
The day starts with the 3K run from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m., followed by a mid-morning parade. Then, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., the street will be open to attendees. Entertainment — music stages, beer, local pro wrestling group F1RST Wrestling — will be headquartered in the U.S. Bank parking lot near Lexington Avenue, and the “family fun zone” will be in the Kowalski’s lot, a new location for this year.
Last year’s Grand Old Day drew between 150,000 and 175,000 people to the avenue, Jensen told the Pioneer Press at the time, a successful and profitable showing. GABA has been fundraising for several months for this year’s festival; several sponsorship slots remain available but he said the organization is in a good financial position to host the event.
“We didn’t have a single complaint last year,” Jensen said Thursday. “We had multiple letters from residents and businesses about what a great Grand Old Day it was, how clean it was, how much they loved it.”
The intervening 10 or so months have been hard on Grand Avenue, though, as the city’s main shopping street has seen the departures of a series of businesses including Salut Bar Americain, leather company J.W. Hulme, and national chains like Pottery Barn and Lululemon.
Each of these businesses, notably, were located in buildings owned by the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, a Columbus-based pension fund that some local business owners cite as a roadblock to a more thriving Grand Avenue.
But open-street events like Grand Old Day are a great way to bring people out and show off the vibrancy that exists on the avenue, Jensen said. The GABA board, all of whom are volunteers, have been working on details for months, he said.
“We all love this event, and we’re excited to bring it back for back-to-back years now after our hiatus,” he said. “We’re excited to be back, and excited to celebrate with everyone in St. Paul.”
Related Articles
Literary pick for week of March 10: ‘Oskar’s Voyage’
Is Grand Avenue thriving or dying? Some businesses close while others report brisk sales
Joe Soucheray: Grand Avenue is changing … once again
Iconic walleye-centric restaurant Tavern on Grand to close
11 more of our favorite new St. Paul restaurants
Leave a Reply