The highly anticipated Open Streets Minneapolis™ street festival, which closes city streets to motor vehicle traffic, is returning to Lyndale Avenue South on Sunday, June 7, 2026. Our Streets is excited to bring back the Open Streets Minneapolis™ event that residents know and love.
The free event is a hallmark of summer for many Minneapolis residents, highlighting small businesses while giving attendees a glimpse of streets as public spaces and the vibrancy of pedestrian-friendly boulevards. For more than a decade, Our Streets served as the community organizer for Open Streets Minneapolis events. In 2024 and 2025, the City of Minneapolis hosted its own version of Open Streets events through other community organizers. This year, Our Streets is organizing and hosting the Lyndale Avenue event through independent private funding.
Thousands of Minneapolis residents have flocked to Open Streets Minneapolis™ festivals to enjoy games, live music, shopping at small businesses, art, and more. These family-friendly events are free to attend and a great way to engage with the rich diversity of Minneapolis and learn more about the local community.
Registration for Open Streets Minneapolis™ on Lyndale is open to partners, vendors, and interested participants. Those interested in supporting the event through sponsorship can learn more on the organization’s website. Volunteers are needed—interested volunteers can sign up online.
Our Streets prioritizes event corridors that lack existing public space or have been harmed in past transportation planning decisions. The return to Lyndale comes at a pivotal moment, as this street closure follows Hennepin County’s latest street design proposal for Lyndale Avenue, most recently adapted to include a separated bikeway in response to feedback from transportation advocates. Many residents remain unhappy that there is no dedicated transit lane in the northern section of the planned route.
“This updated redesign falls short,” says Audrey Tchaa, Whittier resident and communications specialist at Our Streets. “While these updates move us towards streets being a place for people, the new design continues to incentivize parking for businesses by only offering space for a future dedicated transit lane in the northern part of the planned route. 24/7 bus lanes, protected bikeways, and wider sidewalks should not be optional or limited to segments. They should be implemented throughout the entire corridor.”
Open Streets Minneapolis™ is sponsored by McKnight Foundation, The Butler Family Community Foundation, BlueCross BlueShield Minnesota, Trustone Financial and AAA.
About Our Streets:
Our Streets puts people first by transforming transportation and infrastructure in the Twin Cities, the metro region and the state of Minnesota. We do this by making our streets places where people can easily and comfortably walk, bike, roll, and use public transit.
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