Festi-Fall East Shines a Light on St. Cloud’s East End

Revitalization efforts of historic downtown areas have become a target of individuals and organizations nationwide as they seek to bolster their area’s prosperity and vibrancy. Those activities often build on unique advantages and amenities, but the East End of St. Cloud, MN, offers a rather enticing draw.

“St. Cloud’s East End smells phenomenally well all day because of the bread baking at Pan-O-Gold Baking Company,” says local business owner Julie Johnson. “Simply being here becomes a rather pleasing experience because of that!”

East End festival

St. Cloud’s East End is the site of the Festi-Fall East on Sunday, September 22, from 12pm to 5pm. The free-entry festival, brought by presenting sponsor Exterior Pro, is organized by a collection of six East End business owners, including Johnson, to focus on the possibilities existing in St. Cloud’s downtown on the east side of the Mississippi River.

2024 is the first year of the Festi-Fall East, joining St. Cloud’s Downtown Festi-Fall, historically occurring only on the downtown west side. Johnson and her fellow business owners believe adding a Sunday event on the same weekend made perfect sense.

“There are thousands of individuals living and working on the east side, and it has been overlooked for two decades,” said Johnson, who, along with her husband Kevin, owns the 539 Building that houses the Harvester Square Event Center and Iron Street Distillery.  

The other owners participating with Johnson include Emily Campbell (Vibe Wellness), Jenna Kraemer (Dubow Textiles), Ashley Severson (Handymans Hardware), Marla Waseka (Moxie Ladies) and Vicky Welty (SCR).

Family fun

Festi-Fall East will occur on East St. Germain Street, closed for the day for the outside street fair to include food trucks, art vendors, nonprofit organizations, events like Touch-a-Truck, three bands, a car parade and more, all targeting fun for all ages.

Funds explicitly raised for Sunday’s event will go toward new holiday lighting for the East End, which comes on the heels of new garbage cans already purchased for the east downtown area. Goals by the business group with a longer vision include street lighting and sidewalks. 

East End revitalization

St. Cloud has created a vision for the redevelopment of the East End, titled the East End Vision – Small Area Plan, that Johnson and her business owner group endorse. Prime revitalization opportunities exist within an active neighborhood of businesses and residences centered on East St. Germain Street, which includes a mix of industrial land uses.

Johnson indicated that the East End has a built-in customer base, with considerable homeownership already existing due to the excellent schools, churches, restaurants, businesses, and low crime rates.

“The downtown area is very walkable, with hundreds of people walking to current businesses like Target or Vals daily, so we want to embrace that presence and make the connections necessary to help businesses grow and thrive,” she said. “Land parcels and buildings are available now, and they do need attention, but that is the natural progression to revitalizing a downtown area.”

Johnson and her fellow business owners aim to get every East End business owner to participate actively in the revitalization. That support has been evident throughout the preparation for Festi-Fall East.

“We have been able to fully plan the day, including contingencies for rain, such as moving inside to various businesses and spaces with pocket events,” she said. “We hope to build on that momentum for future events, like an October Art Crawl or a spring Music & Rib Fest.” 

Follow St. Cloud East End for more event details and parking locations.