A Few Fun Weekend Festivals Coming up-

Just Spreading The Word About Them!

We will be attending BOTH events so let me know if you'll be attending them too and we'll look for you!
(click on the blue titles to be led to the different festival websites to learn more about each festival or event)

Festival of Nations
Celebrating cultural diversity with food, music, and dance
April 30, May 1, 2 & 3, 2009
St. Paul RiverCentre175 West Kellogg Blvd.Downtown St. Paul, MN
This is really fun! Ryan and I have gone for the last 3 or 4 years. The children's show is at 12:30 I believe. The children are so fun to see dressed in their traditional clothing dancing to traditional music. The flag ceremony is really pretty neat. Children from 90 different backgrounds come together holding the American flag and sing "It's A Small World". It's especially emotional for those that have traveled so far to come to this country or bring a baby home to this country! We know how small the world truly is! Elia loved the whole thing last year, especially the Indian food and the french crepes with strawberries on top! Delicious! Tons of ethnic food, music, dancing, shopping, demonstrations and exhibits. In my opinion it's definitely worth the drive and the enterence fees!

35th Annual MayDay Parade
Sunday May 3
Powderhorn Park Minneapolis
Check out In The Heart Of The Beast puppet and Masque Theater for information on the Parade itself along with the ceremony and festival. It looks like a wonderful time! Our class is working on setting up a puppetry class at HOTB this summer as one of our big fieldtrips and we may attend one of their free puppet shows in the fall as well- they happen monthly from Oct-March.

Coming to their mainstage in Fall 2009
A Path Home
A Story of Thich Nhat Hanh An intimate performance exploring the life and work of Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese monk, poet, and peace activist.
Eloquent puppets weave a gentle and thought-provoking visual meditation on his teachings in this new production.

Flint Hills Children's Festival
The weekend of May 30 and 31 is the Festival Family Weekend in which families experience unprecedented performing arts inside Ordway Center and participate in a vibrant and colorful World Party outside in Rice Park and in Landmark Plaza.
This festival is really fun! It's all different arts, music, theater, dance, etc. for Children of all ages. We attended this festival a couple of years ago (before we had Elia) and really had a good time ourselves! The shows are outstanding! We saw the dance group "The Children Of Uganda" and it was really a life changing experience. I highly recommend this festival to families young and old , it's tons of fun with art activities around every corner great music and shows. If I remember correctly the food was not all that great- but that was a few years ago. You may want to pack a snack.It's definitely worth exposing your children to so many forms of art and culture.