MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis Aquatennial is an institution in this city.
"I've been coming to the Aquatennial all my life. My father would bring us, and it was always a family staple," Tammy McCanna said as she awaited the start of Wednesday night's parade along Nicollet Mall. "I'm a diehard Aquatennial fan."
After canceling in 2020, Aquatennial returned last year and has only grown in strength this summer, with more than two dozen events spaced over four days. The parade drew thousands of people to downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday evening, and the fireworks are expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people on Saturday night.
Given some of the violence the downtown corridor experienced on the night of July 4th, the city vowed to provide Aquatennial with a "significant presence" from the Minneapolis Police Department and at least eight other public safety agencies. Ahead of the parade, MPD bike teams were spotted roaming Nicollet Mall, along with mounted patrols and K-9s.
Leah Wong of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, which produces Aquatennial, said organizers update a safety plan for the event every year in consultation with local law enforcement.
"Downtown is ready for you to come," Wong said. "We are seeing a lot of good momentum in downtown Minneapolis right now. It feels good when we continue to move these events forward."
Colette Lawrence, a program director at the Minneapolis American Indian Center, encouraged a group of elders to attend the parade as they emerge from the worst of COVID-19. They, too, secured a front-row seat on Nicollet Mall.
"A lot of our elders were experiencing isolation, so this has been a great opportunity to get them out of the house. A lot of them wouldn't have come down if we had not done a group activity like this, and because of the rise in crime in the city too, they feel safer in a group," Lawrence said. "I think it's great. We've got to start to show that we're going to move beyond COVID."
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