After a two-year hiatus, the Uptown Art Fair is making its return to Minneapolis this weekend with the hope of bolstering the surrounding area.
When the event was last held, it drew, on average, around 375,000 people. On Friday at noon, the event will officially be back at Hennepin Avenue between 28th and 31st and along the greenway.
Natasha Greiling is on the board of the Uptown Association and says the fair is a way to get people back to the once bustling Minneapolis neighborhood.
“We really hope that people come and enjoy themselves this weekend, but then see some fun stuff to do in weeks and months ahead,” Greiling said. “We are excited to have people back.”
Greiling shared that after taking two years off due to the pandemic, everyone is excited to be back celebrating the neighborhood and art they love.
“We are over the moon, to say the least,” Greiling said. “It’s great that we are back and able to hold such an event of our size.”
There will be more than 300 art vendors from 36 states, plenty of food and music, and some new additions, most notably an NFT tent right under the marquee of the Uptown theater.
“We’ll offer accessible education on how to find and collect digital art and also teach artists how they can sell their work via NFTs,” Greiling said. “We’re really excited about that.”
The fair is also adding a graffiti demonstration area run by the group Spray Finger, which will include education about graffiti and allow visitors to make a takeaway piece.
“The people are just really excited to get together. To parooze art and to support the art as well as the Uptown area,” Greiling said. “So we are really excited to welcome everybody into Uptown.”
For times this weekend, or to see the full list of what is available, visit the Uptown Art Fairs website here.
