Twin Cities weekend guide: Corn Days, downtown chalk art festival, demolition derby
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The 2019 Corn Days parade. Photo: Church of St. George, Long Lake
This section of our events guide typically highlights one of the biggest events in the Twin Cities, but today, I want to share a small festival near and dear to my heart: Corn Days.
The big picture: Corn Days is the annual festival in Long Lake, a town about 15 miles west of Minneapolis with fewer than 2,000 people.
- It's exactly what you would expect from the event of the summer in a small(ish) town: bingo, a pancake breakfast, local bands, a parade, a silent auction and plenty of activities — all themed around corn.
- Previous features include a corn-themed bounce house, giant ears of corn made from painted milk jugs and seemingly endless Mexican street corn.
My thought bubble: I worked at Long Lake's only grocery store for several years (RIP, Harvest Moon Co-op) and quickly came to love Corn Days for all its charm.
- Big fairs with tens of thousands of people are lots of fun, but there's something about the ambience of the traditional small town festival that just feels right.
Details: Saturday, Aug. 10, from noon to 10pm at the Church of St. George in Long Lake. Free!
In other entertainment news...
💥 Watch cars crash into each other (intentionally) at the Carver County Fair's Demolition Derby in Waconia on Sunday.
- Also on tap during the duration of the fair Thursday-Sunday: an "exotic zoo," pig races, live music, rooster crowing contest and much, much more. Prices vary
🎸 Miss out on the Yacht Club music fest? Head to Como Lakeside Pavilion on Friday and Saturday for Lakeside Guitar Festival, featuring 15 local to international guitar-forward acts across three stages.
- This year's headliner is Jamaaladeen Tacuma, "one of the world's great creative bass players," per the event. Free
🎨 Check out larger-than-life chalk art at the Downtown Minneapolis Street Art Festival this Saturday and Sunday. In addition to the dozens of artists creating sidewalk murals on Nicollet Mall, the event will have an indie artisan fair with over 100 vendors. Free
🎭 The Minnesota Fringe Festival, where more than a dozen local theaters host nearly 600 performances ranging from comedy to musicals to drag, continues through Sunday throughout Minneapolis. $20/show, plus a one-time purchase of a Fringe button for $5