Minneapolis will not be hosting the beloved Holidazzle holiday festivities this winter, the Minneapolis Downtown Council announced Tuesday. Citing budget constraints, the cancellation of Holidazzle, which in will be a one-year occurrence, according to a statement made by Steve Cramer, the president and CEO of the Downtown Council.
“After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to cancel Holidazzle for 2023,” Cramer said. “This decision comes after exhausting all possible avenues to make this happen. Holidazzle is a treasured annual event for our community, and we did everything we could to make it possible this holiday season. In the end, we did not have enough funding to produce the event at a level that the community expects and deserves. This is a one- season decision, and we will refocus our energy on Holidazzle 2024 and beyond.”
In recent years, Holidazzle was held on weekends in Loring Park during the lead-up to Christmas, with a focus on local vendors and its craft market. The Holidazzle parade, once a fixture that drew crowds to Nicollet Mall, ended in 2013.
Disappointing as it may be, this isn’t the first time Holidazzle was put on hold. Individual days of the parade were canceled in 2016 and 2008 due to dangerously cold temperatures, and it was scrapped completely in 2020 due to the pandemic.
While the Downtown Council says Holidazzle will be back next year, the decision to cancel it comes after similar announcements earlier this year that would impact other city-funded festivities like Red, White, and Boom, or those that partnered with the city to run, like Open Streets.
