What’s new in Minneapolis

Beginning with a prime-time, outdoor hockey event on New Year’s Day and continuing to embrace winter over 10 days with The Great Northern festival’s packed schedule, the City by Nature has a busy schedule of big ticket events.

Minneapolis hosts the NCAA Women’s Final Four, it celebrate 50 years of Twin Cities Pride and opens its first five-star hotel in just the first half of the year. Check out what’s new in 2022.

The Great Northern: The 2022 festival will be the biggest since the festival’s inception in 2017 with 52 original events over a 10-day period between January 27 to February 6. Starting with the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships, Saint Paul Winter Carnival and City of Lakes Loppet cross-country ski festival, the festival has it all including:

An anechoic chamber experience at Orfield Laboratories (named the World’s Quietest Place in 2012 by Guinness World Records)

Thermic bathing programming throughout the city presented by Stokeyard Outfitters

‘Conservatory,’ an ice-encased, fully functioning greenhouse conceived by artists Jovan C. Speller and Andy DuCett

An iconic 1970s Fluxus performance art piece ‘Ice Music’ reimagined in cellist Seth Parker Woods’ and composer Spencer Topel’s ICED BODIES—featuring electronic music and an ice cello.

Coming-soon hotels

The Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences Minneapolis – Minneapolis’ first five-star hotel opens in mid-2022 in the ‘Gateway district,’ just two blocks from the Mississippi River, with 222 total rooms, including 31 suites.

Hilton Tru & Home2 Suites Downtown Minneapolis (expected March 2022) will have a combined 201 rooms in the same former bank building and be connected to the Minneapolis Skyway system.

Home2 Suites by Hilton Minneapolis University Area (expected March 2022) Located in Prospect Park near the University of Minnesota campus, this 112-room, new hotel will offer a seasonal rooftop bar with great views of the city.

Fairfield Inn & Suites Minneapolis Downtown (expected May 2022) Located steps from the Hennepin Theatre district and Target Field, this brand-new construction hotel will feature 113 rooms.

Plenty to do and see

Watershed Spa – Northeast Minneapolis will welcome the area’s first ritual-based, communal bathhouse and spa in early 2022.

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum – Annual tulip display in late April/May will feature more than 39,000 blooms themed around the colour yellow as a symbol for hope and optimism, and the popular after-hours firefly viewing nights will return in the summer.

Bad Axe Throwing – A fun bar experience where you toss axes like a lumberjack recently opened in Minneapolis’ City Center.

Capri Theater – This completely renovated Northside theater reopened in October 2021. Famous for being the stage to host Prince’s very first public performance.

Paisley Park -Featuring The Beautiful Collection, an exhibit featuring over 300 pairs of Prince’s custom-made shoes, continues through summer 2022.

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden/Walker Art Center – Local Native American artist Angela Two Stars unveiled a new commissioned piece, Okciyapi (meaning: Help Each Other), as the first public artwork by a Native artist to be sited in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden in fall 2021 but it has yet to be seen by many visitors.