The party is outside Sunday at Grand Old Day, Open Streets Mpls
The summer festival season in the Twin Cities is off to a rousing start, with St. Paul's Grand Old Day Festival and Minneapolis' Open Streets both happening on Sunday, bringing large crowds to take in the beautiful day.
Grand Old Day
Grand Old Day on St. Paul's Grand Avenue is apparently one of the largest single-day festivals in the Midwest, the Pioneer Press reports, with an estimated 250,000 people taking part in the activities.
The fun started with a morning parade, which the festival claims is Minnesota's "first parade of summer." This year's grand marshal was U.S. figure skater Ashley Wagner.
Wagner will be back in St. Paul in January for the 2016 Figure Skating Championship at the Xcel Energy Center.
She tells KSTP she is excited to return and hopes to get her fourth title as the reigning champion.
Other attractions include more than 150 food vendors and six stages with 20 musical acts.
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts installed reproductions of masterpieces along Grand Avenue as part of its 100th anniversary public art displays.
Here are some more tweets from the event:
Open Streets Mpls
Minneapolis shut down part of Lyndale Avenue to car traffic and opened it up for bikers and skateboarders Sunday.
It's the fifth year of Open Streets Mpls, which has the slogan: "Open Streets = Happy Streets."
The idea is to promote sustainable transportation, civic pride, healthy living and support local businesses.
Sunday's Lyndale event marks the first of eight events that will happen around the city through the end of September.
The Nice Ride bike-sharing program was also on hand celebrating its fifth anniversary.
Here are a few more tweets from the event.
