Events

Hudson Hot Air Affair

The Hudson Hot Air Affair winter ballooning festival is back for another great year. This annual family-friendly event combines the joy of hot air balloons with community spirit in a variety of locations throughout Hudson and the surrounding areas.

Members of the Greater Stillwater Chamber celebrated in Great Gatsby fashion during their third annual winter gala community award celebration at the JX Event Center. Honorees includeded businesses of the year as well as educator, non-profit and more.

A crowd gathers to see the Minnesota Orchestra at Hudson's Concerts in the Park series at Lakefront Park

Hudson does outdoor music right on the regular at Concerts in the Park at Lakefront Park.

Here are some of the best reader submitted photos from this year's Hudson Hot Air Affair. The mid-winter event has been delighting spectators for 30 years. This year's theme was Pirates Fly’n the Croix-Ribbean. 

St. Croix Valley wedding venue Withrow Ballroom

Memorable experiences are made in the country and city.

This annual fine art and crafts festival takes place in Afton’s quaint Town Square Park. Visitors enjoy art from dozens of vendors along with live music and a wine and beer garden.

Started in the summer of 2003 to bring awareness and exposure to local independent film, the Square Lake Film Festival advertises on its website, “the event is a way to bring some exposure to the awesome independent and largely unrecognized film work being done in and around the Twin Cities.”  

Art Along the Willow is an annual art fair sponsored by a local group aptly named Friends of Willow River and Kinnickinnic state parks. The event hosts up to 800 people.

“It takes a village” is a phrase that comes to mind with the efforts of many members of the community coming together to put on a great day for kids. The third annual A Summer Day will be happening July 22, an event put on by Friends of a Summer Day (FSD) in cooperation with Solid Ground.

The annual Park Art Fair in New Richmond, Wis., is celebrating its 50th anniversary, coinciding with the 10th birthday of the Blues and Brews Festival. “It’s about celebrating the unique beginning up in Star Prairie,” chamber director Rob Kreibich says.

Harsh winds have kept the balloons grounded the past two years, but this year, Hot Air Affair president Evy Nerbonne hopes for a relatively windless weekend, so the 30 to 35 hot air balloons—brought in from as far as Pennsylvania and

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