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🏂Winter Fests, Comedy Clubs & Noodles

🏂Winter Fests, Comedy Clubs & Noodles

Your weekly scoop of Twin Cities fun.

Joe Carmack
January 14, 2026

Your Weekend Forecast

Winter Skolstice

1/16 - 1/25

This is a chilled-out winter gathering at Viking Lakes where you can wander an icy walk with custom ice sculptures, grab a drink at an outdoor ice bar, watch live entertainment and lumberjack shows, check out food trucks, skate or play pond hockey, and catch some live music. It’s one of those local things that takes the edge off the long winter and gives people a reason to get outside and actually enjoy the cold.

Winter Kite Festival

1/24

People bring kites of all shapes and colors out to frozen Lake Harriet to fly them, hang around fires roasting s’mores, check out local food trucks, listen to a kid’s DJ and enjoy some simple winter activities with friends and family. It’s a relaxed afternoon outside where the sky’s full of color against frost and you’re doing more than staring at your own breath.

Lantern Making @ The Walker

1/15

This is a low-key winter evening centered around making lanterns, walking the grounds, and seeing familiar spaces lit up a little differently. There’s art-making, glowing lights, and people moving slowly through the cold together. It feels thoughtful and calm, the kind of winter activity that’s more about being present than being busy.

Stevie Ray’s Comedy

ongoing

It’s a night of stand-up comedy with a mix of local and touring comedians doing their thing on stage. Drinks are available, people are laughing at stuff that’s sometimes clever, sometimes absurd, and the room feels like a typical comedy night where you’re there mostly to unwind and enjoy a few good jokes with others.

2026 Physics Force

1/17

This is one of those science shows where big concepts turn into loud, fast, sometimes explosive demonstrations. Professors mix real physics with humor, audience participation, and a bit of chaos. It’s entertaining, a little nerdy, and surprisingly easy to follow even if physics wasn’t your favorite class back in school.

Dinner is part performance, part puzzle at The Dinner Detective, an interactive murder mystery dinner show that feels more like you wandered into a real-time crime than a scripted play. Actors mingle with guests in normal clothes so you’re never sure who’s “in” on it and who isn’t. Between dishes and clues, you’ll be watching, laughing and maybe even getting questioned yourself as the mystery unfolds around your table and through the room.

Once your entrée settles, the evening keeps rolling into a theatrical twist where everyone at your table becomes part of the story instead of just watching it. There’s food, there’s comedy, there’s unexpected plot turns, and you might find yourself trading theories with your date or interrogating your neighbor. By the end of the night you’ll have had dinner, solved—or spectacularly failed to solve—a crime, and experienced something that doesn’t feel like a typical show on stage.

With a long three-day weekend on the horizon, this is a handy roundup of indoor waterparks, many paired with on-site hotels. Easy mini-trip ideas where kids burn energy, adults relax a bit, and nobody worries about the weather in our frozen tundra. In the words of Olaf, “Let’s go bring back SUMMER!”.

🌊 Minnesota’s Best Indoor Waterparks