Taste of Minnesota Improvements Make It A “Must Event” For Families In The Twin Cities
I’m all about places and ways parents and kids can enjoy each other through music. And Rock Music is my genre of choice.
This year’s Taste of Minnesota appears to be a classic rocker’s dream! Judas Priest. Adler’s Appetite. Brett Michaels. White Snake. Of course there’s more. But these are the ones that caught my eye.
Another great aspect of Taste of Minnesota this year is that they are charging an admission fee. Yep. New ownership has brought new rules. But before you get bent out of shape this new rule will only keep out the folks that have, in recent years, brought a negative influence to Taste of Minnesota. Here’s how it’ll work this year. You pay $10 to get in and you get a voucher for $10 to be used for food or beverage.
I haven’t been to Taste of Minnesota since ’07, yet I’d been there every year prior. But in ’07 my son (then 17) and I went to see Alice Cooper. The guy standing in front of us raised his arms. His shirt pulled up and stuffed into his pants we saw a tire iron. Neither my son nor I wanted to hang around to see what might happen next. So though we were disappointed not to see Alice Cooper, it wasn’t worth hanging around to see what this guy in front of us had in mind.
It was that memory that kept both my son and me away from Taste of Minnesota ’08. It’s sad that you can’t have a free festival that everyone can enjoy. But that seemed to be the case.
Enter new owners of Taste of Minnesota and a new approach to crowd control. Not only that but they are offering reserved areas for watching the concerts for people who want to pay for it while still offering the concerts free for anyone who doesn’t want to pay. The best of both worlds? I think so!
I’ll be back at Taste of Minnesota this year. My son will be home on summer break from college and my cousin’s 17 year old daughter will be visiting from England. The three of us will be on hand for Judas Priest for sure. My son will miss Adler’s Appetite because he has to get back to college but my cousin’s daughter and I might even go back for Adler’s Appetite – depending on how it goes the night of Judas Priest.
Not sure whether we’ll dig into the pockets for the Gold Circle Seating ( a bit pricey at $50 each) but we will definitely be back at Taste of Minnesota.
If you’ve stayed away in recent years, check out their new website and see if you don’t agree that the changes being made make it worth going again this year.