Rochester Rising: Arts & Culture
Certainly, those who visit the city for health reasons will always be the focus of local attention and care. Informing patients and their caregivers about all that Rochester has to offer when they’re able to get out and have some fun is part of the mission of the Rochester Downtown Alliance, which interim executive director Kathleen Harrington describes as a “hybrid of a business improvement district and a community-based organization to promote [downtown] commerce and vitality.”
Harrington notes that “we’re almost a community of two economies.” There’s the Sunday-through-Thursday economy of patient traffic, and then the Thursday-through-Sunday economy of locals and visitors in town for nonmedical reasons. Since a lot of Rochester’s economy is built upon serving patients and their caregivers, says Harrington, the Downtown Alliance works to connect them not only with hotels but also with cultural events, the region’s growing culinary scene, and other ways to enjoy themselves while they’re in town.
Meanwhile, the alliance is ramping up its efforts to attract people from outside the region who might find Rochester a compelling place to visit, even if they don’t have health concerns. “We’re starting to build up our muscle mass on tourism and outreach beyond our borders and our county,” she says.
Why might non-patients wish to visit? One reason is the city’s many festivals. There’s Thursdays Downtown, a summertime series bringing together music, art, and food that attracts around 15,000 people a week. There also are international gatherings such as September’s Latino Fest, organized by the local Alliance of Chicanos, Hispanics, and Latin Americans. Other cultural attractions include the four resident theater companies, the Rochester Symphony, and the Choral Arts Ensemble. The Downtown Alliance also wants nonresidents to see Rochester as “a base of operations to enjoy the region,” Harrington says, including the area’s biking, canoeing, and hiking opportunities.
Yet another attraction is Mayo Civic Center, the city’s main events venue. It has hosted some notable conventions, including those for United Hardware, the cooperative behind the Hardware Hank chain, and the Just for Kix youth dance class and clothing chain. These organizations find the Rochester venue to be ideally proportioned for their needs, unlike larger venues such as the Minneapolis Convention Center.
Mayo Civic Center also provides other reasons for visitors to come to Rochester—and one of those attractions is comedy. Shortly after Joe Ward took the reins in 2019, the Civic Center hosted nationally known comic Jim Gaffigan for two shows. Both shows quickly sold out.
“We’ve been able to add pretty much any comedian with a name—and even some without a name—and they’re our highest-selling events by far,” says Ward, the Civic Center’s president. He surmises that “that’s indicative of the type of work people do here.” And since many visitors to Rochester are patients, “we’re giving them an outlet to laugh.”
Ward asserts that compared to many other convention-center monoliths, Mayo Civic Center has personality. The complex, which completed an $84 million renovation and expansion in 2017, “went from a series of three different buildings into one 200,000-square foot space, including the largest ballroom in Minnesota,” he says.
The spaces are less boxy than those of typical convention centers, and they allow plenty of natural light to shine in. What’s more, Ward says, “we’re trying not to serve trade show coffee and trade show lunches.” This means, in part, working with local restaurateurs, breweries, and other hospitality vendors.
“We want to make sure that there is that home for local access,” Ward says. The civic in the facility’s name “is really important here.” Rochester-centric gatherings include Celebrate Rochester New Year’s Eve, a free, family-friendly celebration, and the We Have a Dream Celebration, an annual community event held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“I wanted to create an event that could tie together the budding music community in Rochester.”
—Nick Novotny, co-owner of My Town My Music
Mayo Civic Center also hosts several Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) sectional tournaments, including volleyball, wrestling, and boys and girls basketball. In addition, the Civic Center complex is home to the Rochester Civic Theatre and the Rochester Art Center.
Rochester might not be on the tour itinerary of, say, Taylor Swift, but other musical events are luring people from beyond the region. Case in point: the Rochester Thaw, an annual one-day music festival held in March. Nick Novotny, co-owner of My Town My Music, a Rochester organization that promotes local music, launched the festival in 2019. “I wanted to create an event that could tie together the budding music community in Rochester,” he says.
The Rochester Thaw started small, a one-day event featuring seven bands performing at a single venue. After a pandemic hiatus, the festival returned in 2023 bigger than before, with 30 bands performing across six venues. About one-third of the bands come from Rochester. “That way, there’s a really big platform for local musicians,” says Novotny, who continues to serve as the festival’s director.
The other two-thirds, ranging from small up-and-comers to nationally known bands, travel in from around the state and the Midwest. Since its return, the Rochester Thaw has sold out both years, attracting about 650 attendees in 2023 and around 900 in 2024.
Novotny notes that there are other music events in and around Rochester that host local music. “But in terms of having this kind of event where you’re going between six stages during a single day, there’s nothing that looks like [the Thaw] in Rochester,” Novotny says. It’s also a format that’s familiar to music fans who’ve attended other festivals.
“Rochester has a lot going for it in terms of the music scene,” he adds. “There’s a lot of excitement building. There’s a little something for everyone—rock bands, country bands, hip-hop.” There’s also been a nice, gradual uptick in international music-related events.
Novotny shares a piece of advice for visitors as well as locals, and it’s not solely about music: “If you haven’t been to Rochester on a weekend before, get here and come out and see everything that’s new and everything that’s growing. Because there’s always something to do.”
Shaping Spaces, Sharing Stories
When it comes to community vitality, Rochester wants to bring everyone into the conversation. DMC has been spearheading a Community Co-Design initiative with other local partners to create equitable projects, policies, and practices in the design and development of public spaces, housing, social connections, and other community assets in the Rochester region. The idea is to encourage the inclusion of Rochester’s diverse communities throughout the design and development process, bringing together community members and industry professionals to address cultural barriers and create a more equitable city.
A steering committee has convened to help guide the co-design process. So far, that process has been used to help shape the Discovery Walk linear park in the Discovery Square subdistrict and to encourage the launch of BIPOC-owned businesses. Additional projects are in the works.
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