Open Streets Lyndale, Porchfest, Chroma Zone & Lynx Playoffs

It's the last full week of September in the Twin Cities and the calendar is stacked. George and Laura run down the weekend — street festivals, porch music, murals, ballgames, brunch, and a big-picture look at cannabis and community investment. In this episode: Open Streets Lyndale — Saturday Sept 26, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., car-free stretch of Lyndale Ave S with vendors, music, and a kids' zone. Powderhorn Porchfest — Friday 4–10 p.m., 17th Ave between 32nd & 34th in South Minneapolis. Chroma Zone Mural & Art Festival closing weekend in St. Paul's Creative Enterprise Zone (Raymond/University), running through Sept 27 with live painting and studio-crawl stops. Mill City Farmers Market Saturday 8 a.m.–1 p.m. at 704 S 2nd St, plus Midtown, Kingfield, Northeast, and Nicollet Mall markets still running. Live music: BERTHA: Grateful Drag at First Avenue Sat Sept 26; Hail the Sun (Wed) and Holding Absence / Arm's Length (Thu) at the Varsity Theater. Theater: David Strathairn stars in "Waiting for Godot" at the Guthrie, directed by Joseph Haj, running through Oct 11. Sports: Twins host the Texas Rangers Thu Sept 25, 7:10 p.m. at Target Field; Minnesota Lynx clinch the No. 1 seed with WNBA Round 1 starting Sun Sept 27 at Target Center. Food & local business: Sweetgreen's 5th metro spot inside Mall of America's Culinary on North food hall; Bar Eloise launches Sunday brunch; Houston White named creative director of the GroundBreak Coalition, aiming for $5B in community investment by 2034; MN's legal adult-use cannabis market turns one with 369 licensed businesses and 230+ dispensaries. Sources: Mill City Farmers Market Meet Minneapolis farmers market roundup City of Minneapolis September events MplsArt calendar (Chroma Zone) First Avenue shows Guthrie Theater 2026–2027 season Minnesota Twins schedule Lynx clinch No. 1 seed (CBS Sports) Mpls.St.Paul Magazine restaurant openings Star Tribune: Houston White & GroundBreak Coalition MPR News: MN cannabis market turns 1 Subscribe: mplsvegan.com Full transcript George: —and I'm telling you, Laura, the light on the Stone Arch this morning was UNREAL. Laura: George, every morning the light on the Stone Arch is unreal to you. George: Okay, fair. Laura: You'd stop mid-jog for a sunrise on a parking ramp. George: I have. I absolutely have. Laura: I know you have. George: But this one had that... you know that gold September thing? Where it's not summer light anymore, it's got a little edge on it? Laura: Yeah. That's the good stuff. That's the "run don't walk to the patio" light. George: Exactly. Which — hi, everybody, welcome back. It's the last full week of September in the Cities and it is GORGEOUS out. Laura: Genuinely gorgeous. Like, don't-waste-it gorgeous. George: Highs mid-seventies, cool nights, that little crisp thing in the morning. Laura: The kind of week where if you don't have plans by Wednesday, you're doing it wrong. George: Okay so let's fix that for people. Let's talk weekend. Laura: Let's talk weekend. George: Because there is a LOT going on, and I want to actually be useful for once. Laura: Oh, a useful episode. New format. George: Rude. Laura: Deserved. George: Alright, first thing — Open Streets Lyndale is Saturday. Laura: Yes. Yes yes yes. George: Eleven to five, they close a big stretch of Lyndale Ave, vendors, music, kids' zone, the whole deal. Laura: That one is my favorite of these. Lyndale hits different when the cars are gone. George: Doesn't it? You realize how wide the street actually is. Laura: And how many little businesses you drive past without ever stopping. George: Right! You're always at forty going, "I should check that place out sometime." Laura: And "sometime" is Saturday. George: Sometime is Saturday. Laura: I'm gonna walk the whole thing. I always say I'll bike it and then I don't. George: Bike it! It's flat! It's Lyndale! Laura: George, I know it's flat, I grew up on it. George: Ope. Sorry. Mansplaining Lyndale. Laura: Mansplaining Lyndale to a South Minneapolis kid. Bold move. George: Genuinely, my bad. Laura: You're forgiven. Barely. George: Okay — also Saturday, Powderhorn Porchfest is actually Friday, four to ten. Laura: Wait, Friday? George: Friday night. Seventeenth Ave between 32nd and 34th. Laura: Ohhh. Okay. So you do porchfest, then you sleep, then you do Open Streets. George: That's the itinerary. Laura: For folks who haven't done a Porchfest — it's exactly what it sounds like. Bands, on porches. You walk the block. George: It's such a Minneapolis thing. Laura: It really is. Like, "let's just do music on the porch and everybody comes." And people DO come. George: And nobody's trying to sell you anything. It's just... neighbors. Laura: Do you think that's a Minnesota thing, though? Or is it just a neighborhood thing? George: Uh. Genuinely don't know. I've never lived anywhere else. Laura: Same. So we're both useless on that one. George: We are deeply provincial and we're okay with it. Laura: Skol. George: Skol. Laura: Okay what else. George: Over in St. Paul — Chroma Zone. The mural festival. Laura: In the Creative Enterprise Zone, right? Raymond and University area? George: Yeah. It's been going since the 17th and it wraps up the 27th, so this weekend's the closing push. Laura: Which means live painting. Which is the best part. George: The best part. Watching somebody put up a two-story mural in real time is just... unreal. Laura: It's meditative! You just stand there with a coffee going, "how." George: "How." Yeah. Laura: There's studios open too, right? Like a crawl?