Several major events drawing hundreds of thousands to downtown Minneapolis
You can hear it, and you can see it, Downtown Minneapolis was buzzing with action Saturday. The Minneapolis Downtown Council estimates there'll be about 100,000 people in the city Saturday night.
Kendrick Lamar and Sza are set to shake the U.S Bank Stadium as they launch their Grand National Tour with more than 48,000 tickets sold.
"It's super important to me seeing community come together," said Joely Nelson.
Meanwhile, just a few blocks away, local bars are getting ready for the rush- preparing to welcome thousands more who will be taking in the Timberwolves take on the Los Angeles Lakers in game one of the NBA playoffs.
Issac Lebens-Englund is the service manager at Tom's Watch Bar. He said his team has been gearing up for the nights festivities by ordering more beverages and scheduling the entire staff to keep up with the crowds.
"We can expect this to be one of our busiest times of the year," he said. "It was last year, and we are planning on the same thing this year."
Duininck said concerts and sporting events are needed to revitalize the city.
"It's a lot of people coming down for dinner, drinks, and cocktails meeting with friends," said Adam Duininck, of the Minneapolis Downtown Council. " It's also great for social fabric for community and city to have that many people on street seeing for themselves how vibrant and safe downtown can be."
In 2024, the Downtown Council said downtown welcomed about 10 million people who were attending events, concerts, and sports.
Above all Duininck said all the foot traffic is fuel for the local economy making all these events even more memorable.
In the next 90 days, there will be nearly 300-thousand people attending events at U-S Bank Stadium. They predict, people will spend more than $40 million dollars while in town.
