What a grand idea! This place had it all. Plenty of food options and music to entertain. Not…read moresure if this is a regular event but certainly one that you should keep on your calendar. The variety was nice. The lines were long so plan to wait for your food. Mear park was full of people and parking was surprisingly plentiful despite being the weekend and a Saints game going on. Highly recommend.

This year marked my second consecutive year of attending this festival and I have to say...it gets…read morebetter every year! The variety of trucks is great (even for gluten free vegan!) And the park is beautiful. Everyone seemed to be having a blast! My only issue is that with such a popular event the lines can be quite long and the park can be very crowded. Can't be shy; push your way through and get a little rough!

I've only been here once, and what an event it was!! It…read moretruly does capture the atmosphere of Jazz music. The location is perfect, while it can be hectic getting into downtown and parking, I would suggest going green and spend an all day visit. Taking the rail or bus either way you'll be greeted with GREAT music! They have several stages, played at different times in which you walk from one block to another should you feel the need to explore. Food is wonderful! Plenty of FOODTRUCKS and local eatery. BIGRIVER pizza near CHS and farmers market is AWESOME! Not to mention too, there will Art booths set up from local artist. Including myself :-)) Http://DeMeglioart.com I'll be there FRI-SAT It's a place to come and it's FREE, not the food of course!

Love it! Well organized, Talented Musicians, Great Security, and just a fun Summer Festival!…read more I normally stay at the Mears Stage because I live right there but many other venues around like Black Dog, Amsterdam, and Union Depot Stage, have acts playing at the same time. I think the bigger name bands play at the Main Stages however. Thursday night is a perfect night, not too busy. Friday night is still great but Saturday does get really really crowded so get your spots saved early on that day. I must applaud the Security Team this year. Last year I had a few pesty drunks bugging me, since I am a magnet for that type but this year, while sitting with my friend Ron, a drunk started bothering him, and within a minute, Security was right on it! Bam! Get out of here! It really made me feel good that they were very visible this year!! Thank you to the organizers who arranged this fine security group!

Oktoberfest in St. Paul at the historic Schmidt Brewery grounds. How can you NOT love it? German…read morefoods, Summit brews on tap, German music. There is a $5.00 fee for the wristband to buy alcohol ($6 for a Summit brew). Food available in tents outside. Portapotties are available.

I want to support my neighborhood and last year was a five-star day, so that's why I went with four…read morestars rather than three. It has soooo much potential since it's not as enormous as the other summer block parties, but this year was more of a three-star experience. I hope they learn some things this year and really knock it out of the park next year. I don't clearly remember the first year of the Lyn Lake Fest, but last year, it was packed, it was easy-ish to get a beer, Har Mar Superstar killed it. This year (year three), it felt kind of empty and nothing grabbed my attention enough to stick around for very long. The beer "garden"/parking lot was full, but not the street, at least not when I was there around 4-5 p.m. Plenty of cute dogs though. The local lineup on the mainstage was awesome this year (Koo Koo Kangaroo, Black Blondie, Peter Wolf Crier, Haley Bonar, Heiruspecs headlining), but I think they could have done without the second stage. One band was playing on that northernmost stage with almost no people paying attention. I felt bad for them. The food options were improved this year, with the Chef Shack and Magic Bus Cafe on-site with the Lyn-Lake restaurants. Heidi's also had some burger specials specifically for the event. Summit had their beer truck out and I also saw someone with a to-go Bloody Mary. I never figured out where it came from though. Damn. Lots of other Lyn-Lake and local businesses had booths, like Nice Ride, Hair Police, The Loft Salon, some crafters selling cute jewelry and other odds and ends. Both salons were doing feather extensions. Maybe that should have been discussed among the salons before go-time, because they were just a couple of tents away from each other. And what was up with the poodles (with NEON-dyed fur, the poor things) being groomed right there in the middle of it all? There were little balls of pink dog fur blowing in the wind blocks away. Gross. Absurdly gross.

Great little community event at Island Lake Park. It was super hot out yesterday, but still…read morebearable. Plenty of parking at Deluxe Check or the surrounding lots. Attractions: Smallish carnival- most of the rides are for younger kids which is nice for us. Fun Slide, mini cars, spinning dragons etc. Lake Johannah Fire Station open house with lots of freebies, fire tucks, water hoses, education etc. Nice little open house. Parade Vendors Food Vendors Jump Station for the kids- $5 Some of the prices are ridiculous for things. $7 for a lemonade and $3 for a refill. Good turn out. Nice community event.

Fun free event for the whole family...I was there yesterday and they had an AMAZING band playing…read morecalled THE POWER OF 10. I had so much fun dancing! Loses one star from me because of the expensive food truck items and lemonade...also everything is cash only...so bring cash! There is an ATM on the ground but there's a $3 fee!

Burger battle was such a filling experience literally and figuratively. 3 hours of all can you eat…read moreburgers and drinking beer. This year I went. It was rainy and having an umbrella was more of a burden than useful as you need all the hands to hold your burger and beer. Having a ponchos was the smartest choice we made that day. TIP - Come early! After a while some places run out of food if they are not out of food the lines become a 20 - 30 minute wait. Instead of a under 5 minute wait. If you have friends, divide and conquer and you will be able to try every single burger. So the food, yes. The burgers were great overall! If you love bacon, you will love this place as many of these places had bacon on their burger. Which is personally not ideal for me as I do not eat bacon. Crazy I know right!?!?! But there are many burgers that do not have bacon. Overall the burgers and beers are great. This event is fun and worth it, to do it once in your life.

I absolutely love the idea of this event, and only wish it had slightly better execution. The deal…read moreis that you pay $55 for a ticket and get unlimited burgers and beer for three hours. It's a bit on the expensive side, but hey, all the proceeds go to charity. This year featured 25 local restaurants serving 2500 attendees. Some quick math with probably have you asking, "Wait, does that mean that 100 people are waiting for burgers from each restaurant at any given time?" Herein lies the problem. Allow me to set the scene. I attended the event with my fiance. Both of us were keenly aware of our meat consumption limitations going into this, so we came armed with a plan. Most of the burgers that are served here are sliders, with the rest being full-sized burgers that are cut into halves or quarters. Our plan was to only get one burger at each tent, which we'd then split, thereby allowing us to sample all 25 burgers without puking halfway through. We made sure to arrive early before the gates had opened, and there was already a long line to get in. Still, we were probably among the first couple hundred of people to enter, and we quickly grabbed our first pair of burgers from two adjacent tents. We each ate half, then traded burgers. Things were off to a good start. What we didn't realize was that while we were busy savoring those first few bites, the rest of the 2500 attendees had arrived, and each tent suddenly grew a very long line. We got into separate lines, following our agreed upon divide and conquer strategy, and about 15 minutes later had another pair of burgers to sample. Sadly, the wait times only increased from there. We decided that waiting in line for the super popular places (Red Cow, 5-8) just wasn't worth it, and instead got into some of the (comparably) shorter lines for the less well-known restaurants. This proved to be a pretty good strategy. We tasted some really good burgers, and some pretty disappointing ones. Now, the event touted itself as having unlimited beer in addition to unlimited burgers. We each managed to snag a beer right at the beginning, before the line got out of control. For the rest of the time, the beer line was consistently about four times long than any of the individual burger lines. This just didn't seem worth it to us, so we resorted to just getting bottled water, which had no line for the entire duration. This thing was supposed to last for three hours, which is how we were timing our burgers, but in actuality most of the tents ran out of something about two hours in and started packing up. I think the two hour mark was when the official judging started, so after that they didn't really have an incentive to keep handing out burgers. In the end, we ended up trying 13 different burgers, and truth be told we were super full at around the 9 burger mark, but thought we should at least pass the halfway point. This didn't end up being as fun as I would have expected, but after interviewing some fellow burger aficionados, we realized that we just didn't have the right battle plan going in. Here is the winning strategy, which we may yet implement in future years: 1. Come with a large group of friends. Eight people seems to be the ideal number. 2. As soon as you arrive, split up and have six people get in line at different tents, while the two remaining people get in the beer line (this ratio can of course be altered depending on if your group wants more burgers on more beer). 3. Each person in line at a burger tent takes two burgers when they reach the front. Each person in the beer line grabs as many beers as they can carry. 4. Meet up a one of the picnic tables. Cut each burger into fourths, and split the beer as you see fit. Everyone eats their six burger pieces, and has some beer. 5. Send your party out once more, this time to a new set of tents. 6. Repeat until everyone is full of burger and beer goodness. We actually encountered a couple of groups that were using this or a similar strategy. The general consensus seemed to be that this was a good way to taste all 25 burgers without feeling sick afterwards.

Live music. Booze. Mechanical bull riding. Booze. Corn dogs. Booze. People watching. Booze. Fresh…read moreAir. Booze. Walleye on a stick. Booze. Stupid drunk girls. Booze. What's not to love? Recommend walking rather than attempting to park... and also wear comfortable closed toe shoes so stupid drunk people don't step on your feet. It gets crowded.

It was our first time this year, and I was surprised at how long we lasted! We got wristbands in…read moreadvance (probably didn't need them you can hear the bands just fine from the other side of the gate, unless you need beer) caught the end of the parade, checked out the local artists (at noon there wasn't much in this area), got some food (our faves were the bison brat and the corn on the cob w/ the mexican crema, cheese and cayanne), got some beer and listened to 4 on the Floor (?). It was pretty hot, but we found some shady spots to take a rest, and it wasn't nearly as crowded as I was expecting. Also, the free shuttle bus running on Summit was great. I think we'll be checking this out next year!

Pierohi was stellar! Russian tea cake was ok. Bbq beef sandwich meat was awesome!! However there…read morewasn't too much meat and it was on a wrap. This was a negative. The corn looked really good but unfortunately I didn't have any room left in my stomach for it. Good music, nice assortment of vendors. And super friendly people.

A great day, good food, and very friendly community - and a beautiful church, wow!read more

The Taste of Minnesota was moved downtown for 2024 for a weekend of food, music and great weather!…read more It looked like a great turn out the event was controlled entry but still free to attend. I loved all the different music stages set up one had prince songs another for jazz. There were artists and of course the food trucks!! Staples like Anchor, Nawlins truck, Brownie Moms. There was a zip line set up and a beer garden also people with stamps so that you could get a drink was a nice change from those paper bracelets that are impossible to get off. Food: I loved the tender sweet sticky ribs at ono Hawaiian. Next we saw a billow of smoke coming up from a grill and headed over where Mara had set up an area in front of their restaurant at the four seasons. The chicken was delicious and juicy and the chermoula sauce brought it all together! I also had the pioroshki at the Ukrainian American booth a filling meat pocket which came with a refreshing creamy dill sauce and lastly had some garlic wings and an egg roll. It was a beautiful day to be out and really enjoyed the event. Looking forward to next year!

The 2024 taste of MN was the best one I have been to since it was on the capitol lawn. Great music…read morefrom Martina McBride and Sounds of Blackness and several others. The food was great. I came because Krewe (St. Joseph, MN) was there. Hopefully next year they will have some of their entrees. Parlour had great burgers too. Many offerings including paella, pizza, eclairs, sandwiches, etc... It was crowded but not State Fair crowded. We booked a hotel downtown and that saved us the hassle of transportation during the festival.