Wow! What an impressive sight! I was in the area to see the next door Millennium Gardens, but…read moredecided to extend my visit by walking down the trails. I ended up at the Hilde Amphitheater. There wasn't an event going on at the time, but the facility still really impressed me! Gorgeous piece of architecture, but also a really well maintained lawn and surrounding grounds that looked like it could accommodate a considerable gathering of people. There's a fountain near the memorial plaque, along with some statuary and some cute music makers for people to play with. I was quite enamored by the multicolored mosaic animal statues (I had to snap a photo with each!) near one of the entrances. I noticed a couple of port-a-potties and many trash cans. Also the geese waddling about the grounds were kinda cute. I'll probably look online to see if they're having any upcoming events that interest me, because it'd be cool to show up for a performance!

An absolutely stunning venue. We had never heard of this spot before but visited for an event. It…read morewas incredibly spacious, well maintained, and tucked away. I only wish there was more seating near the stage, but I imagine that was an intentional design choice. Most people brought their own chairs anyway.

What a great venue! I came here to see one of my favorite local bands. It was my first time in…read morehere, and boy did I enjoy myself! The acoustics are great, and there's plenty of room to stand, to dance, or to sit. It's clearly family friendly, and it was full of music lovers of all ages. You can tell that the Cedar Culture Center is really made with its community in mind. In addition to the great concert experience, I had a great time getting my beverage --they have a wonderful concessions area with a great selection of snacks and drinks, including a very respectable selection of non-alcoholic options. The people behind the counter were super nice and helpful as well. It was really easy for me to find street parking as well. I will definitely keep my eyes out for more good shows here.

My 1st time at the Cedar Cultural Center, and I was blown away with a magically beautiful evening…read moreof music with voulouse + bad posture's farewell show. The volunteers were all so kind and friendly. There were snacks, alcohol drinks, and THC drinks available during the show. Seats were unassigned with no bad spot in the entire place. I can't wait to go back for another experience!

Oh my. This was truly the best night of 2016 so far. And…read moreit's going to be tough to top. How does one convey in words such high levels of epicness? I will press on. If you have a deep appreciation for heritage pork, then you should be at this venue. If you don't, then you clearly do not belong in such a place with this kind of zeal and squeal. Nothing less than 5-stars, my friends; nothing less. First, I have history with pigs (aren't reviews really just a way to tell the stories of our lives?). I grew up loving pigs. Miss Piggy was my favorite. In 6th grade, I begged my parents to get a pot-bellied pig (one day I'll give them the kudos for sticking to their guns on not letting that happen). Also in 6th grade, I ate too much candy and started to resemble a pig, so I decided to stay quiet about my love of pigs until I got my waistline under control about a decade later (phew). While loving pigs, pork did nothing for me...until I learned of heritage breeds back in 2008. The color! The flavor! The texture! There was no going back. And just to show off ('cause that's fun to do from time-to-time), I discovered & tried, at a fundraiser dinner back in 2011 for the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, Mangalitsa pork belly for my first time, and knew right then there could be no other. And this is where the Cochon555 story begins... My sweet Mangalitsa was here in many culinary creations (and other breeds, too). And many of its dear relatives were here. It was a big family reunion and I was on cloud nine. Out of sheer randomness (& a reminder from God that He loves me), I won 2 VIP tickets from Yelp to this event! I wasn't even aware of what Cochon555 until I saw the contest (HOW did I MISS THIS?). When I read up on it, I realized that this evening was scripted for me and soon enough I found that I won! The joy! The rapture! The tears! Thank you, Yelp! The machine bots that chose my name were Divinely guided! I will write reviews for you until I perish from this earth. I invited a foodie friend that gets as excited about sustainably raised heritage piggies, from our beloved local farmers, as I do. Our tickets were thoroughly redeemed with every delicious, lovingly prepared, & creatively presented piece of pork. People talk about how drugs have altered their mind and enhanced their experience. I can't speak to that. But I can speak to what THIS pork did to me. There were top notch, sustainably & creatively-based restaurants, competing & representing at this event, including: Travail Kitchen & Amusements Spoon & Stable Chef Shack Ranch Surly Brewing (who won the MN Pork King title) Zen Box My favorite food delivery mode was a man, from Travail Kitchen, scuffing around the room on his knees in a sombrero. The sombrero contained a delicious & subtly sweet pate in the center of the hat and the rim of the hat contained chicharrones broken up from a large hide they fried late the night before. The server was on his knees so that people could just grab from his hat at standing height...it was brilliant. There was prociutto-like bacon (I know, it's either one or the other...but in this case, it wasn't!) "skewered" in waves on a thin crispy bread stick (no, it wasn't a pretzel ;-). There were also sweet lard-filled chocolates (I could have eaten those all night!). I was blown away by Spoon & Stable's creation of marshmallows made out of pork blood (same whipping properties as egg whites; who knew?!) and so much more. There was also the whole hog butchery going on right after the votes were taken. This is something IMPORTANT! We're a society that is detached from where our food comes from. Majority of us aren't going to be able to tell others what portion of an animal that a particular cut comes from, so this was valuable, precious, AND educational. All parts of the animal were put out for sale! Loved that feature, too! For as much gushing as I'm doing, I will say there were a few items that I thought were boring and uncreative for it being at an event like this: wonton-type items (wrapping pork in pasta is most likely what all of us would have thought of doing...just wasn't a "wow" (not that it has to be). Another item is that this is NOT a gluten-free friendly event. Considering the focus on sustainability and that wheat is an overcropped item (which is overshadowed by those who have gluten allergies & sensitivities). While I CAN consume wheat, I choose not to, because of past wheat sensitivities. I was truly surprised that at this day and age how many chefs went with the bland wheat berry. There was even a separate pie outfit that came in as a pop-up towards the end that didn't offer gluten-free options. Wha? Yes, one can consume the filling if they must, but one can also create a stellar gluten-free pie crust. Regardless, I would go to this event again & again. Oh, and ladies, 3 out of 4 attendees (or more) are men. If you're looking for a piggy-partner-in-crime, you may find your match here ;-)

I had never been to an event like this so I knew very little about what to expect. It ended up…read morebeing awesome! There is a wide selection of local wine and other beverages to try. It was a great opportunity to learn more about some of Minnesota's local food and wine producers! There were many different variations of pork as well as other dishes to try. The seafood bar was phenomenal! Overall, great experience. I highly recommend d for those who love pork or are just looking for a unique food experience!

Nice little neighborhood parade and festival. Attended our first parade in Blaine. I don't think I…read morehave ever attended a parade in an actual neighborhood. This was on a nice residential street with not an over abundance of people. It was a very nice parade, decent length and nice people and even the weather held out before the down pour. After that we headed over to Acquatore Park where there were lots of rides; Ferris Wheel, Merry Go round, Slides and more... Carnival food and lots of booths. Too bad the rain ruined that part, but we got in a few rides and a few greasy food items before ducking into a tent and then heading out. Nice set up and a nice festival to attend in the summer!

Local parade along a tree lined (shady) street. Always well attended but not mass of people.read more

I was SO looking forward to this festival as I love Asian food. The quality of the food was very…read moregood and the ViP bag & pin were cute but tickets at $85 for two was high. But the food prices were through roof. When your only options for wontons is one for $4.00 and $18.00 for 8 is unreasonable. Can I get 2 for $7.00, so I can have other small tastes of other food? $21.00 for a cup of beef ramen (commemorative noodle cup which is very cute-see photo)? The drinks were also pretty highly priced. Mt other feedback was the security check. We paid for VIP tickets and expecting a VIP entrance. Nope, everyone goes through the same line which OK, I get it, it's police policy. However, the officer went way too far in searching. Not only did he pull my wallet out, he started opening up my wallet and looking though the compartments. What was he thinking he'd find? No wonder the line was long and we were there right at 4:00 pm. And I wasn't the only one, another guest commented on the extra security needed because she had never had her wallet inspected either. Probably won't return, unless, it can become a "tasting menu" vs. $70 for 3 dishes.

Ah, Panda Festival 2026 at the Mall of America. I believe this is the second year they have had…read morethis in Minnesota. We missed out last year because the tickets sold out (my fault), but we made sure to attend it this year. Here is the good, bad, and the ugly from our adventure. We, as in me, my wife, and 11 year old daughter, made it our mission to make it this year. I got the 1000 am check in time, and paid for 4 tickets to PANDA FEST 2026! This was the earliest check in time for day 2, Saturday, August 1st. Luckily we didn't get tickets to day 1 on Friday, because it rained almost all day. Saturday was rain free, but a bit warm. The temp was in the high 80's. The 4th ticket went unused because my daughter's friend didn't make it. We made sure we arrived about 20 minutes early, because I had no idea where to park. The event was in the far north parking lot of the MOA (Mall of America). I was happy to see that there was plenty of parking about 2 blocks from the festivities, and the parking lot was enormous. We walked to the entrance, and there was already a long line that had formed, and it was pretty regulated with the typical cattle guard fences and MOA security overlooking everything. We didn't have to wait long, and the MC of the event got on her "toy" bull horn and welcomed everyone to the second annual Panda Festival. The countdown started, and everyone shuffled through the security checkpoint that was manned by MOA personnel, and Bloomington Police Officers. This was a pretty secure checkpoint that looked like Terminal One of the MSP airport. Yes, they even had metal detectors, and all bags/purses were checked. No vapes, lighters, guns, or weapons, outside beverages or food were allowed in. But no worries, it looked like a few vapes were tossed on the ground before the check in. Confession time. I'm a retired copper of 30 years, and always carry a knife on me. Today was no exception. I figured my chances were about 50/50 on whether my very expensive knife was going to trigger the metal detectors. But I decided to play the odds, and then flash my Police ID if the detector went off. I'd hand over the knife, but return later to get it after we left the venue. However, I passed through the metal detectors no problem, despite having my cell phone, and a janitor sized keychain on my belt loop. Read that as you may, but methinks the sensitivity of the metal detectors were set a bit too low. Anyway, we passed the checkpoint, got our collectable panda pins, and the inflatable panda headbands. It was a nice touch that the headband station had hand pumps to pump up the headbands. My daughter loved the headbands. Now, it was time to eat! If you are a foodie, this was the place to be. Evidently there were over 80 food vendors here, and the variety was enough to satisfy almost everyone. We started off with 2 fruit juices since it was pretty hot out. The two juices were okay, and set us back about $10 a piece. We then decided to get something to eat. My daughter (who took all the pictures, thanks Dixi!) got some fresh fruit that was caramelized in a sugar shell. I got a marinated steak skewer that was about 14 inches long that was pretty fatty (very fatty) but tasted pretty good. The wife abstained from eating but got a potato tornado drenched in blue Taqui dust later (didn't like it). We then proceeded to check the rest of the place out, and I won a trivia contest that yielded a bamboo Vietnamese rice hat for the daughter. Then we ate more food. The highlight was a weird concoction of an ice cream cone that was shaped like a question mark that my daughter had seen on YouTube. It was messy, but tasted pretty good. She also had a conversation with the YouTube influencer that was there, so she was happy about that. We lasted about 2 1/2 hours due to the heat, but managed to visit the entire venue, albeit about $150.00 lighter, much to my chagrin. We had fun, ate a lot, but it was not cheap. Case in point: a panda container of fresh watermelon juice set us back $25. The average cost of a single item was around $15. With that said, the best deal was a Thai style papaya salad made to order for $10. It was very good, and was good for about 3 servings. All in all, we had a good time, but it was expensive. Will we go next year if Panda Festival comes back? Probably. This place made bank, and it was a huge crowd. A word of advice: Don't do the VIP treatment. It's not worth it, and basically gets you a slightly shorter line on entrance, a small swag bag, and more access to the port a potties. Shell out for the general admin tickets. The line goes quick. All in all we had a good time. Thanks to the kiddo for the pictures taken, and she got interviewed by a reporter from the Star Tribune on camera. Expensive, but it was an experience.

Brought the grands out here for their first experience horseback riding. The stables are lovely…read more The grounds are beautiful and of course it's adjacent to the park. They got a half hour of instruction before they were taken on their ride. They had excellent experience and I highly recommend this stable. The kids haven't stopped talking about it. We would definitely come out here again. The grands are eight and 11. Highly recommended!

Riding til dawn! Slow riding for an hour was fun! I loved the experience! Would highly recommend.read more

There's only two reviews for this gem? Sheesh!…read more So here's my confession: I buy my State Fair tix early (November each year via Instagram for a hefty discount) just because of the bands that play on this stage. Granted, I can bike to the Fair but it is THIS STAGE that has so many amazing and talented artists every single year. I only have pics of three of the bands but here's a brief line-up of the bands that I've seen here free (minus my State Fair entrance): - EnVogue - Blue Oyster Cult - Marty Stuart - Jayhawks - Marky Ramone - Semisonic What else can you say? It's general admission so if you want a great seat, you can camp out all day if you want. Plus the bands are always there for 2 nights. In addition, the Food Building is right across the street and you have Leinie's serving their tasty swill right there and the lines are always reasonable. Do yourself a favor and catch a show here if you never have.

This place is just called the Bandshell now. No beer sponsors anymore. It used to be called the…read moreGrain Belt Band Shell and was chartreuse or grinch green in color. I've seen Montgomery Gentry and Paulette Carlson of Highway 101 here in the past. Today I saw a John Denver Tribute band and a Jimmy Buffett Tribute band and both had the same lead singer. It is a nice place to sit and watch bands for free.

Had the pleasure to see The Rainmaker during its last week. The cast members did a fantastic job of…read moremaking you feel like you were right outside their door watching the drama unfold. Exceptional use of a small stage - the set was well laid out & realistic for a period piece. Theatre is well equipped and staffed with people who care that you have a good time. Sad to say I was excited to smell the popcorn when we opened the front door..you can take in to eat while watching the play however we devoured ours beforehand! Recommend this gem for a great date night.

Wonderful theatre here! Great box office staff (we bought tickets this time since the performance…read morewas in high demand) but have done rush tickets before and the box office staff was wonderful. This is the old movie theater that still has a lot of life to it! The productions are amazing and transporting! Concessions available before and at intermission (including beer, wine, pop, coffee, candy, and fresh popcorn)-which they allow you to take into the theater to enjoy.