From The Editor: Summer Is Here?

I won’t make any specific claims about when April showers will end, when May flowers will bloom or when summer will start in earnest. I’ve learned my lesson about making predictions after I claimed winter would be over by the time our Spring Dine & Drink issue would hit shelves. (There was a snowstorm on the day of publication.)

Whenever summer does start, though, and however long it lasts, there will be more than enough to keep us all busy throughout! 

Our Summer What-to-Do list has, I suspect, enough to keep you occupied from now through Labor Day. There’s live music, drag shows, art festivals, pro sports Pride Nights, outdoor activities and more! 

The first of those events starts, if you’re reading this on the day of publication, tomorrow, with Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association’s Art-a-Whirl running May 15-17. If you’re interested in attending, Sommer Wagen previewed it for us in our last issue and highlighted some LGBTQ+ artists worth checking out. If you’re not interested, you’re also in luck; there are dozens of other options for you all summer long.

Even with the glut of options on our Summer What-to-Do list, I fear I’ve buried the lede. I left something out. Nothing crazy, it’s just our Regional and Small-Town Pride Guide and the beginning of our Pride Month coverage! 

In addition to everything on the Summer What-to-Do list, our Regional and Small-Town Pride Guide collects Pride festivals from around Minnesota and the surrounding area and presents them to you on a glossy paper or glass-and-LED platter, depending on where you’re reading this. Whether you just want to figure out when and where your local Pride is or try to visit as many as possible this summer, we have you covered. We also have feature articles on Anoka Pride Day and Rochester Pride for the first time, plus the story of Pine City, Minn., receiving an official historic marker recognizing East Central Minnesota Pride as the first-ever rural Pride celebration. 

And that’s just the tip of the (quickly melting) iceberg. There will be many, many more Pride events and stories in our 27th annual Pride Issue, coming out at the end of May. For now, though, I hope planning everything else you’re doing this summer is enough to tide you over.