Cold Comfort

It may be chilly but Minneapolis is braving the deep freeze to forge a bold new identity as a cool creative hub with food, art and design at the forefront.

- Carli Philips

Minneapolis may well be one of the coldest places in the US but it is also one of the most beautiful. Together with its twin city St. Paul it’s well equipped to deal with the frost (above-ground ‘skyway’ footbridges are enclosed and connect city blocks) and grassroots movements are advocating for, rather than enduring, the freeze. Spearheading the movement is Eric Dayton – or King of the Cold as he has come to be known – whose ‘Keep the North Cold’ charity campaigns for an end to climate change. The 37-year-old also co-founded the Great Northern Festival, an outdoorsy celebration of all things winter with fine dining street feasts, loppet racing and the US Pond Hockey Championships. There’s lively events even during the chilliest and most isolating months, like the popular Art Shanty where temporary cabins are transformed into an interactive creative hub. Twenty-two of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes are in Minneapolis and the interconnectedness of its pristine boulevards, gardens, trails, creeks and riverbanks have earned it the title of Best Park System in America. Its most scenic route, the Grand Rounds, is a mob scene during winter and, when the lakes freeze over, skiers, ice-surfers and snowmobilers come out to play.

The state by and large has been overlooked, its claim to fame being as Prince’s hometown (his Paisley Park compound is now open to the public) and the site of this year’s Super Bowl. “For as long as I can remember, Minnesota has been lumped in with the Midwest and written off as flyover country. Over the past several years we’ve started to take control of our own identity and narrative and I think ‘The North’ better defines not just where we are, but who we are,” says Eric, the son of Minnesota’s governor (his family also founded the Minneapolis-born Target).