What’s The Deal With All Those Skateboarders?
Nearly every summer for the past several years, there’s been one night when hundreds of skateboarders seem to appear out of nowhere to overtake North 2nd Street, then 10th Avenue and 5th Street in North Loop.
It’s always on June 21st, the night of the summer solstice, and it’s not a protest. It’s the annual Go Skate Day (also known as Go Skateboarding Day), when skateboarders around the world mob the streets for a short period of time to bring visibility to their sport. And they’re often joined by supporters on bikes, rollerblades and scooters.
For the Minneapolis event, they usually start gathering at 6pm around Commons Park downtown near US Bank Stadium and then at 7:00, they head toward North Loop, arriving on 2nd Street around 7:30. It’s a loud spectacle that brings car traffic to a stop for about five minutes before things return to normal.
Their final stop is Target Field Station where they pose for a group photo.
You can read more about the background of this event here.
By Mike Binkley, North Loop volunteer