Friday, May 30

6:00 PM–9:00 PM

Start your summer off right and visit the Ordway for the official beginning of the Flint Hills Family Festival Family Weekend! With music, dancing, activities, and food, there is something to please everyone in the family.

Special morning feature

NOOMA, an opera for babies

Tickets start at $8 10:15 AM & 11:30 AM

Friday night headliner

Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band

Tickets start at $24 6:30 PM


Free to attend

Outdoor performances

Families dancing at the Flint Hills Family Festival's 2023 Strings & Salsa Night. Photo by Laura Alpizar.

On Friday night, the park surrounding the Ordway comes to life with free, family-friendly acts! Bring your whole family for spectacular drumming performances, live DJing, wandering puppet artists, face-painting, and more!

Festival MC

DJ Huh? What??

6:00–9:00 PM Flint Hills World Music Stage

Markus Clegg: Magician

6:00–9:00 PM Rice Park


Free to enjoy

Activities

Volunteer leading an activity at the 2022 Flint Hills Family Festival. Photo by Laura Alpizar.

Learn and create at the Festival! During the Flint Hills Family Festival weekend, Rice Park—just across from the Ordway—bustles with fun, free art-making activities, educational games, and more.

ArtStart

Rhythm of the City

Rice Park

Make beautiful music with the Ordway to celebrate their birthday! Decorate a colorful trumpet or guitar using artful reuse materials, then write your birthday wishes on it.

ArtStart.org

Bell Museum

Rice Park

Hands-on nature-themed art activities and specimens for participants to observe.

BellMuseum.UMN.edu

Carpenter St. Croix Valley Nature Center

Rice Park

A play on 'paint-by-number,' participants will have the chance to color, draw, or paint wildlife native to Minnesota. Follow an easy outline while observing one of CNC's live animal ambassadors! As you work, naturalists will share each animal's life history.

CarpenterNatureCenter.org

Children's Theatre Company

Rice Park

Make your own monster mask! Kids can use crayons, paper plates, and tactile multi-media materials to make a monster face.

ChildrensTheatre.org

Flint Hills Resources

Rice Park

Design and color a drawstring bag and show off your unique artistic skills and then use it to hold the other arts and crafts collected throughout the festival.

FHR.com

Hoàng Anh Vietnamese Dance Group

Rice Park

This year, in commemorating 50 years of the Vietnamese Americans in Minnesota, families can craft their own paper boat, symbol of survival, hope, and freedom; make a thank you card; or color a paper boy or girl bookmark in their traditional áo dài.

HoangAnhDanceGroup.Wordpress.com

MathHappens Foundation

Rice Park

Come help us build the 3D Shape Museum by designing, assembling, and naming your own three-dimensional shape.

MathHappens.org

The Ordway

Rice Park

Color a spooky, kooky craft inspired by the first show of our 40th anniversary season, The Addams Family!

Face painting and balloon art with

Rainbow Party Arts

Rice Park & Landmark Plaza

Fun and fast face painting by award-winning artists.

RainbowPartyArts.com

Trần Thị Minh Phước

Rice Park

Learn how to fold papers while listening to the author's sea journey to America and stories from the book Vietnamese Folktales For Children: Stories of Adventure and Wonder in Vietnamese and English.

PhuocThiMinhTran.Wordpress.com