A celebration of Minnesota settles for a day in St. Louis Park

Just in time for the Minnesota State Fair in late August, citizens can prepare for it by completely immersing themselves in Minnesota culture.

The Shops at West End will host the second annual You Betcha! Minnesota Made Festival  from Noon-10 p.m. Aug. 11. The event will feature live music by local groups, as well as several Minnesota-themed contests.

The West End hosted a similar event last year, but it has made an effort to make this year’s gathering more of a Minnesota event by reaching out to people not just around the metro area, but also across the whole state, according to festival organizer Michael Landstad.

“We really tried to focus more on Minnesota this year, pulling the entire metro area in to celebrate Minnesota as a whole,” Landstad said.

The contests and music are, but festival organizers and West End businesses are accepting donations. The festival has pledged that all proceeds go to Courage Center, a Minnesota-based charity center helping people with disabilities.

“The main goal of the festival is to benefit local Minnesota businesses, especially great causes like Courage Center,” Landstad said.

During the day the festival will consist of many family events, such as cooking demonstrations by Nordic Ware, the Nordic Ware Hot Dish contest, and several fun opportunities for kids in the Park Nicollet Fun Zone, to go along with food and drinks provided by West End restaurants, such as Rojo, Cooper, and Toby Keith’s Bar and Grill.

In the evening, local music groups such as The Honeydogs, Davina and the Vagabonds, Farewell Milwaukee and Lynhurst start playing, and the Loon Calling and Best Minnesota Accent contests heat up.

The festival events are designed and put together to appeal to as many people as possible.

“We really meant to attract all age groups, all Minnesotans at differents parts and different events throughout the day,” Landstad said.

Festival officials expect over 4,000 people to attend the festival throughout the day which is much more than last year.

Park students have been attracted by several of the activities, including junior Brian Shrestha, who would go for many reasons.

“While I enjoy going to concerts and seeing live music, I also would go for the Hot Dish contest, because that means that there’s a lot of food there,” Shrestha said.

Sophomore Liam Schmelzle said he was also intrigued by a different event.

“All the contests sound really amusing, and the loon calling especially sounds like a really cool idea,” Schmelzle said.

Whatever the reason, one can expect many people looking to enjoy themselves to come to the West End and channel their inner Minnesotan.