Holidazzle returns to Nicollet Mall to help rev up downtown Minneapolis

Jamie Steele was a self-proclaimed Holidazzle diehard as a kid.

So when she saw an advertisement for downtown Minneapolis’ seasonal event flash across her Facebook feed, she told her partner, Davey Steinman: “We have to go.”

The pair bundled up Wednesday for the first of this year’s five-night festival. In the glow of holiday lights, they danced to local hip-hop artist Nur-D’s performance.

“The way that he had the audience moving was just like, ‘Yes, it’s glorious to be back on Nicollet Mall,’” Steele said.

For the first time in a decade, Holidazzle returned to downtown’s commercial corridor, where the long-running parade drew hundreds of thousands of people each December for more than 20 years.

In 2014, organizers refashioned the event as a winter festival and moved it to Loring Park. The celebration took a year off in 2020 during the pandemic and in 2023 because of a funding shortfall. Adam Duininck, who took over as president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council around that time, said the hiatus gave the nonprofit business organization time to regroup and reimagine its beloved tradition.

This year, it moved Holidazzle back to the festival’s original location with hopes of enlivening the city’s central business district, which is still grappling with the loss of office workers in the post-pandemic era of hybrid and remote work.

When Holidazzle first lit up Nicollet Mall in 1992, it was a way to compete for the holiday shopping crowd with the Mall of America, which had just opened in Bloomington. Downtown boosters spent more than $1 million on marketing efforts that yielded the Disney-inspired parade of light-up floats.

More than 30 years later, downtown is still vying for visitors in the face of new pressures. Duininck said corporations, such as U.S. Bank, Target and Xcel Energy — which all have a presence downtown, including on Nicollet Mall itself — were among the largest contributors to the event’s budget of roughly $500,000 this year.

Bringing back the parade would have been too costly, Duininck said, and some restaurants and retailers expressed a preference for a festival-style event that drives traffic over a longer time. Building on the success of summer events for the U.S. Olympic gymnastic trials and Taste of Minnesota, the Downtown Council blocked off Nicollet Mall from S. 6th to 11th streets to make way for food trucks and fire pits, concert stages and art installations.

This year’s Holidazzle also has indoor components. Yuri Samuel, citing his Miami roots, said he appreciates the ability to take a break from the cold to shop in the Dayton’s Project, enjoy music in the IDS Center or roller skate in City Center. His son, 5-year-old Avon, liked City Center’s Minnesota-themed miniature golf course best.

Melody Owens, on the other hand, reminisced fondly about the days when Minnesotans huddled outdoors for hours to snag the best views of the parade. She roamed Nicollet Mall with her 18-year-old daughter, who was too young to make the Holidazzle parade memories that her older siblings have.

“I just wish she could experience it one time. I think it’s a lot better than the Macy’s parade. But times have changed, and things are different,” said Owens, waving a hand toward storefronts once dominated by big-name department stores.

Those with last-minute Christmas shopping to do this year will instead find pop-up holiday markets. Among the many vendors crowded into the Dayton’s Project is Northern Drift, an apparel retailer with a store in Excelsior. Owner Lisa Jane said the event exposes the brand to new customers, which drives future business online and in store.

“It feels to me like people are really dedicated to supporting small businesses, so we’re thrilled to be here,” she said. “I’ve heard a lot of people say they love coming down here and would love to see more things like this.”

Boosters also want Holidazzle to expose new people to downtown. Friends Elsa Black and Lydia Hurst, who moved to the Twin Cities in the past two years, found the event while searching online for something fun to do Wednesday evening.

“I had no idea any of this was here,” said Black, 24.

Hurst, 22, added this was also her “first time really getting to explore downtown.”

“It’s fun to see all the people out. It feels very festive,” she said, “and there’s a good community vibe.”

Duininck said he hopes Holidazzle will bring between 100,000 and 200,000 people to Minneapolis through its five-day run. The event is open noon to 9 p.m. Saturday, including a new Peppermint Pub Crawl up Nicollet Mall, and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

“We’re taking a bit of a risk to do the event this year,” Duininck said. “But if we can prove that it works … my long-term hope is that we can build up a holiday festival with statewide appeal that becomes a tourist destination.”

For inspiration, Duininck looked to Detroit, where an outdoor ice rink downtown anchors holiday festivities that draw hundreds of thousands of visitors. He said he’d also love to bring cross-country skiing to Nicollet Mall, with a general focus on embracing the outdoors more. That suggestion came from the Downtown Council’s recently released strategic plan for the next decade.

Holidazzle gives a glimpse of how another goal of the plan — a pedestrian-only Nicollet Mall — could come to be, as conversations about the removal of buses from the corridor continue.

“People want to come downtown every year to see something that they can’t see anywhere else,” Duininck said. “And I think we have that kind of city. We just have to lean into it, flex that muscle and attract people the way in which we’re capable of doing.”

For those nostalgic for the Holidazzles of yore, he said, fear not: Footage from past parades projects onto buildings’ facades along their former route.