Tell Us About Festivals - The "Two Seasons" of St Paul, Minnesota
- sallyinstpaul
- 24 hours ago
- 7 min read
I am fortunate to have joined a talented group of bloggers for the Global Writing Challenge. Each month, we write about a very broadly defined topic, and the responses are quite varied. The newly revised group includes Deb’s World, Marsha in the Middle, Rosie Amber, Suzy Turner, Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever after Again, Atypical 60, and me.
This month, Debbie selected the topic of Festivals...and two yearly festivals here in St Paul came immediately to mind. As usual, I have photos I've taken at these two festivals and some data to share (an occupational hazard of being a data analyst by profession).
All the photos are mine. But instead of compiling the data myself this time, I decided to hire a (free) intern in helping me put information together from the Internet - specifically, the Google AI Gemini. After recently watching some videos on Master Class in which various AI experts demonstrated how they interact with AI to get good results, I was curious whether I could instruct Gemini to create tables and compile facts about festivals according to my directions. I was pleasantly surprised that Gemini did a good job at this task, though it did require me to provide feedback and correction ("No, what I wanted you to create was a table with...Can you modify this to...? Great, now you can you add...?") throughout the process...just like you would do with an inexperienced human intern, only much, much faster.
1 - Global Festivals with the Highest Daily Attendance
Let's start with the widest possible view, looking at the biggest festivals in the world based on average daily attendance numbers. I chose daily attendance as my metric because festivals can range from a single day to many months in length, which means that longer festivals would have an advantage. Depending on what you're interested in learning, that could be fine, but I though average daily attendance would be better for my purpose because it would more closely reflect intensity/density/busyness at the festival.
I had never heard of Kumbh Mela, but it's an important Hindu pilgrimage that is held every 4 or 12 years (at various sites) based on the position of Jupiter - interesting! Even if you divide the average daily attendance by 4 or 12, you have more than a million people participating. I was surprised to learn that that pilgrimage and the Arba'in Pilgrimage were bigger than the Hajj, which is well-known as a requirement of adult Muslims (though one need only do it once in a lifetime). Oktoberfest in Munich makes sense...but then the Minnesota State Fair, here in St Paul? Really? I knew it was big, but this big??
2 - US Festivals with the Highest Daily Attendance
We saw that the Minnesota State Fair and Mardi Gras are big on a global scale, but what are the other big US festivals? I have heard of several of these (e.g., State Fair of Texas, of course; Coachella, Lollapalooza) but have not attended any...not even SXSW, though I lived in Austin for a decade and always meant to get there some time (you know that goes, right?). By sheer coincidence, SXSW 2026 starts today.
3 - Minnesota Festivals with the Highest Daily Attendance
Switching now to Minnesota festivals, we see several here in the Twin Cities area, of course. It's funny that I haven't been to the Grand Old Day street festival since it's so close by (though a friend who lives right next to it says that it's a parking nightmare, which is a consideration).
4 - Minnesota State Fair Facts
It's been a bit weird having the Minnesota State Fair (MSF) as our "local" fair because people all over the country have heard of it and friends and friends-of-friends are curious about it. But we go to it the same way we went to the county fair when we lived in North Carolina...it's the nearby fair that has a rabbit show! Strangely, the MSF is not famous due to the rabbit shows.
During the Peak Pokemon Go era, we would also sometimes go to the fairgrounds on just a random weekend to play, and it was weird to walk down the sidewalks seeing all the permanent buildings, signs, sculptures, etc., but almost no people (except other Pokemon players).
5 - Minnesota State Fair and State Fair of Texas Comparison
Texas has the biggest state fair by total attendance (befitting the typical "everything is bigger in Texas" braggart/booster stereotype) but Minnesota takes the prize based on average daily attendance. (I honestly don't see "we're smaller but denser in Minnesota" catching on as a phrase, even if it does align with the dumb Swede stereotype.)
Other than the MSF, the only state fairs I've attended are the Tulsa State Fair (average daily attendance: 90-100K) and the Oklahoma State Fair in OK City (average daily attendance: 72-82K). To non-US readers: it's actually not unusual for a state to have multiple "state fairs," but I do think it's odd!
6 - Minnesota & Texas Fair Vibe Differences
They are not kidding about the food at the MSF being "on a stick" - it's absolute insanity...though probably overall better than "deep friend everything" (Jello? What??).
I love that Gemini has captured this idea that the MSF has worse weather because it's humid and sometimes stormy while the SFOT has pleasant fall weather because I think that's probably the way Minnesotans and Texans online speak about their experiences. But is this legit?
7 - Minnesota & Texas Fair Daily Temperature and Attendance Comparison
Let's be clear: the characterization of the MSF as "humid/stormy" and SFOT as "pleasant fall weather" only makes sense by considering how locals think of the weather.
Visitors at the MSF experience average high temperatures in the upper 70s F (25-26 C) for the entirety of the fair, and with the start of wetter weather as summer starts wrapping up, it can be humid or stormy. Visitors at the SFOT can only expect high temps in the 70s on days 18-24, with all the prior days averaging in the 80s. And in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, they experience high humidity throughout that period.
Only in somewhere as hot as Texas, with summer temps routinely above 100 F (38 C), would humid weather in the upper 70s to mid 80s F be considered "pleasant fall weather"! It's only pleasant in comparison to the hellish heat of summer they've just endured. (There is a reason that General Sheridan's observation that "If I owned hell and Texas, I'd live in Hell and rent out Texas" continues to resonate throughout the state in the long summer season.)
8 - Winter Carnival in St Paul
Texas has their long, hot summers, but Minnesota has their long, cold winters. Appropriately, crazy Minnesotans celebrate the coldest weeks of the year by attending an outdoor winter festival!
Well, crazy Minnesotans and, one time, me! I actually wanted to go this year as well but I got really sick with a sinus infection and didn't recover until after the festival is over. But several years ago, I did walk to the park on a Saturday to see the ice castle and ice sculptures. My husband was out of town, so I went by myself, which was interesting because it felt like everyone else was there with a companion or in a group.
9 - The Two Seasons of St Paul
I asked for a quick comparison between Winter Carnival and the MSF, and this was the resulting table. I thought the "two seasons" framing was interesting!
10 - Winter Carnival Weather
And yes, the average high temperature during the Winter Carnival really is 20 F (-6.8 C). Choosing the coldest part of winter is wise when ice sculptures, ice castles, etc. are such an important part of the experience - no melting allowed!
Not many festivals would have an autonomous snowplow competition. The competitors were teams of college students from various northern states. It was strangely compelling to watch! This is one of those times when it's nice to be at an event by yourself - it was a cold day, and my likely companion would have frozen in place standing outdoors in a single location long enough to watch the competition.
That wraps up my discussion of the festivals representing the "two seasons" of St Paul and how they stack up in terms of attendance and weather compared to other festivals.
Check out what other bloggers have to say about festivals:
Debbie: Debbie’s favourite festival is Tumbafest, an annual festival of music, food and wine in her small hometown of Tumbarumba. It’s gearing up to celebrate 30 years in 2027 which is an amazing achievement given many festivals are folding after just a few years.
Marsha: Marsha grew up just outside a small town. When she thinks of festivals, it isn’t music that comes to mind. It’s something else entirely!
Rosie: Rosie asks, what is it about festivals that draw people to them?
Suzy: Suzy writes about why she’s never been much of a festival person, despite living in a country that loves them.
Leslie: It's almost time for El Paso's annual Poppy Fest. But will the guest of honor make an appearance at this year's celebration?
Catherine: Her post topic is a surprise!
Do you have any local festivals you enjoy attending? Do you ever go to your state's state fair? What is your favorite season for festivals? Have you ever been to a winter festival?
Blogs I link up with are listed here.