Festival features interactive arts

Northern Spark Festival provides all-night entertainment

Jamie Halper

This June, Northern Lights MN hosts its annual Northern Spark Festival, giving people the opportunity to explore Minneapolis after dark.

This all-night festival features a variety of events at a number of venues across the city, including the Walker Art Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Peavey Plaza, the University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Senior Noa Grossman said she loves seeing the different side of Minneapolis presented in this festival.

“You never get to see the city at night,” Grossman said. “It’s an amazing opportunity to explore a city you already knew through a different perspective.”

Monica Sheets, the festival’s volunteer coordinator, said there are a number of interactive elements to the festival.

“Out on Peavey Plaza there’s going to be a number of games that are either accessible by smartphone or a combination of physical interaction and smartphone interaction,” Sheets said.

For people interested in video games, the University of California Los Angeles Game Lab, one of the foremost game-designing programs in the country, according to Sheets, will set up an arcade in the Target Atrium in Orchestra Hall.

Students under 18 can visit many of the performance-based exhibitions that take place before curfew.

“Between nine and 12 is probably the peak of the festival in terms of the amount of things going on,” Sheets said.

Grossman said she’s looking forward to experiencing the festival with friends this year and biking between events.

“I’m really excited to see this year’s art,” Grossman said.

Performances like “Closer” by Body Cartography, running from 9 p.m. to midnight, and presentations like Origami Fishtank by Tony Biele, running from 9 p.m. to 5:26 a.m. are just some of the many art exhibitions to be featured during this year’s festival.

For students who want to volunteer at the festival, there are a number of positions available throughout the afternoon and evening.

“We do have positions that start as early as two in the afternoon helping with getting out information and helping to watch over the information tents,” Sheets said.

Student who are interested in volunteering can email Monica Sheets directly at [email protected] or visit the festival website to fill out a sign-up form.

The festival runs from 9 p.m. June 13 to 5:26 a.m. June 14. For more information and a full schedule of events, visit the festival’s website at 2015.northernspark.org.