Mayday Parade celebrates 50 years of art and protest
This year marked the 50th anniversary of the Mayday Parade in south Minneapolis, which drew thousands of celebrants who enjoyed puppetry, avante garde music and worker solidarity on a pitch-perfect spring day.
'It has always been about welcoming spring, but always about potent things like workers' rights. It's about community solidarity from the community,' said Andrew Bendzick, a mechanic with a Southside artist collective known as Battletrain.
He helps make sure the heavy, complex metalwork art installations can move smoothly on the parade route, which runs along Bloomington Ave. from E. 28th St. to Powderhorn Park.
Celebrants came dressed in flowers and animal masks. Many brought their instruments and played in impromptu ensembles. Bikes were locked several deep on every fence and railing. People shouted 'happy Mayday.' They sprayed bubbles and threw fistfuls of flower petals.
Mayday helps Minnesotans 'remember why we live here, why we love this community, and trying to take it back, take it back to community, and make it safe for everybody,' Bendzick said.
The parade comes at a perilous time, as workers face increasing threats from the Trump administration and an opportunistic corporate sector committed to rolling back labor rights.
The parade and event, which carries on a long European tradition of May Day that welcomes spring and commemorates International Workers' Day, has no central leadership nor funding. Instead, a decentralized collective of puppet workshops, neighborhood groups, arts organizations and other volunteers create the event.
Liz Zinsli, an artist with Battletrain, said she's been watching the parade since she was a teenager, and contributing to Battletrain's massive Mayday projects for 10 years.
'We always need those reminders of beauty and fun, and of what we can really do together on this very grassroots level,' said Zinsli. 'And remembering that, I think that's really important. Remembering how much can really be done in a decentralized way and in a collaborative way is really powerful.'
Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre started the original Mayday celebration in 1974, but 'released it' to the community in 2023.
The celebration continued this year, with huge crowds lining the street to watch the parade and later filling Powderhorn Park for the Tree of Life ceremony, in which colorful boats bring the sun across Powderhorn Lake as musicians and puppeteers perform.
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