MINNEAPOLIS — If you've felt like Minneapolis has been busier than normal recently, you're right. The year has been jam packed with events so far, as hundreds of thousands have flocked to the city.
The most recent major event, the GALA Choruses, is a five-day, 7,000-singer strong LGBTQ+ choral festival featuring 200 concerts.
"It's an incredible experience to feel like you have this community of people like you," Jane Ramseyer Miller, artistic director for GALA Choruses, said. "And then on top of it all their choral nerds, so it's just fun. Everybody's singing and walking down the street and enjoying concerts."
It's the event's first time in Minneapolis in decades, and has been a long time coming.
"Minneapolis has actually bid for 16 years to host this festival, so it's about time that we're here!" Ramseyer Miller said.
In fact, the event was supposed to happen four years ago in 2020, but was canceled because of the pandemic. Since then, the festival has continued to grow, bringing even more people to Minneapolis.
"Well, we have taken over hotel rooms all across the city," she said. "So of course, that's income for hotels, the same things with restaurants and businesses, bars, for sure. All of those things just help build the infrastructure for Minneapolis."
It's another big get for Minneapolis, adding to a year filled with large events. From the Big 10 tournaments to the success of the Wolves and Lynx, the Olympic Gymnastics Trials and Twin Cities Pride, there hasn't been a lull.
"To really establish that momentum and let people know that things are really happening in Minneapolis, and that they need to come down and check it out," Melvin Tennant, president and CEO of Meet Minneapolis, said.
Because of these major events, Tennant says that's allowed them to entice other organizers to take a look at Minneapolis, using those events as recruiting pitches.
"What it means it that whenever we do one of these events, other event organizers look at us and say, 'That is a city that I think we could see ourselves in,'" Tennant said.
"There's nothing about Minneapolis that dissuades national customers from coming," he added.
Business has been so good that Tennant says this June was the busiest time for hotels in Minneapolis ever.
"In June, from a hotel occupancy perspective, a little over 67%. We were about 62% this time last year," he said. "If we go back to 2020, the occupancy was about 13%, so we've come back very, very strong, and we continue to build on that momentum."