Grand Old Day

The main attraction was the people watching, which is good! Aside from this, there is not a ton to get excited about here. Grand Avenue is blocked off for what seemed to be two miles, so you’ll do a lot of walking. There are stretches were virtually nothing is happening, and then you get to clusters of vendors selling food (the same food over and over again, mostly cheese curds), local businesses promoting, some musical performances, beer gardens. But all in all it’s rather uneventful, though still good to get out and see big crowds of people if you’re into that kind of thing.

Grand Old is a great free event for everyone no matter the age. The parade is one of the best parades around as it lasts about a hour and has a variety of entries. Once the parade is done, enjoy the people watching as you head down Grand to see what booths and music are on Grand. The one downfall of the event is the requirement to purchase tickets in order to get food and drink from vendors. The amount of tickets that some vendors require is insane so you end up with one or two tickets left that you cannot use. If the organizers got rid of the tickets, this could be a five star festival.

It was our first time this year, and I was surprised at how long we lasted! We got wristbands in advance (probably didn’t need them you can hear the bands just fine from the other side of the gate, unless you need beer) caught the end of the parade, checked out the local artists (at noon there wasn’t much in this area), got some food (our faves were the bison brat and the corn on the cob w/​the mexican crema, cheese and cayanne), got some beer and listened to 4 on the Floor (?). It was pretty hot, but we found some shady spots to take a rest, and it wasn’t nearly as crowded as I was expecting. Also, the free shuttle bus running on Summit was great.
I think we’ll be checking this out next year!

Live music. Booze. Mechanical bull riding. Booze. Corn dogs. Booze. People watching. Booze. Fresh Air. Booze. Walleye on a stick. Booze. Stupid drunk girls. Booze.
What’s not to love?
Recommend walking rather than attempting to park… and also wear comfortable closed toe shoes so stupid drunk people don’t step on your feet. It gets crowded.

I’m totally not one to go and hang out in Saint Paul for just any old reason. My sister went to St. Thomas while I went to Augsburg, and I think we only managed to see each other twice a year, even though the only thing separating us was a river and a few miles of highway. Grand Old Day (s) is no exception to this rule.
Even though I’ve been living *thisclose* to St. Paul forever and a day, this year was my first time attending G.O.D. I went as part of a work function, so it was semi-​required. :P
I will say this – it was a lot more fun than anticipated. At first, I was bummed to be working on a Sunday, but once the music started and a couple beers were brought into play, that all changed. My work mates and I had a great time jamming to Ari Herstand, Catchpenny and Roster McCabe at the Rock the Cause stage. Scott Herold puts on a great show with his RTC stuff.
I also ran into a few friends, which made the day that much more fun! We wandered around a bit, hit up a couple of other stages, and generally had a blasty. I might even go again next year!