The Basics
In-Person Festival: August 22-24, 2025
Venue: Center For Performing Arts, 3754 Pleasant Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55409
When Can I Sign Up?
Registration will close in early August.
Sliding Scale Admission
Admission is offered on a sliding scale. Regular admission is $120.
Meals and snacks are included with admission at all price points. Please select a price point that is equitable for your personal situation, whatever that is. All we ask is that participants pay as they are able; we won’t ask you to justify your choice. Donations will support our efforts to keep this event as accessible as possible and help ensure that Make a Scene will happen again in the future.
To be perfectly clear, we intend for our community to take advantage of reduced and free admission. We’d rather have you attend than not!
Please note that we can only accommodate 70 total participants. If we sell out of tickets you’ll have the opportunity to be added to our waitlist in case anything changes.
Schedule
Here is a basic outline of the schedule. Once we have a program assembled we’ll post a detailed schedule with all of the scenarios and meal details. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of what your Make a Scene! experience will be like.
Friday
5:00 pm: Sign-in, Dinner, Social Time
6:30 pm: Whole Group Scenario
8:45 pm: Social Time
10:00 pm: Doors close
Saturday
8:30 am: Breakfast
9:30 am: Two short scenario slots/One long scenario slot
2:00 pm: Lunch, Social time
3:30 pm: Two short scenario slots/One long scenario slot
7:30 pm: Dinner and Optional pick-up scenario
8:00 pm: Party!!
10:00 pm: Doors close
Sunday
8:30 am: Breakfast
9:30 am: Two short scenario slots/One long scenario slot
2:00 pm: Lunch, Social time
3:30 pm: Debrief and Closing
Communication During Con
We will use Discord as the primary mode of communication during the festival. The organizers won’t be checking email or Facebook during this time, so please make sure to join the Discord server.
Meals and Snacks
Group meals will be served at the event beginning with dinner on Friday night and ending with brunch on Sunday. Meals are included in admission at every price point.
Water, juice, coffee, and tea will be available throughout the event. A variety of snacks, including both healthy and sugary options, will also be available.
Please let us know if you have questions about the menu. If we aren’t able to accommodate your dietary needs, you’ll be welcome to use the kitchen to prepare your own meals, if desired. There are also a variety of restaurants nearby the venue.
The consumption of alcohol is not permitted on-site.
Accommodations at the Venue
Simplify your visit to Minneapolis! There are attached AirBnB guestrooms at our venue, Center for the Performing Arts. These private rooms have one bed each, single or double, and include a desk and two walk-in closets. The rooms share a huge well-appointed kitchen, light-filled living room/dining room area, and bathroom. Check out more details on any of the rooms here. Reservations will be open directly through AirBnB in late February.
Accessibility
Make a Scene! strives to be as accessible as possible. We also must acknowledge that some aspects of the event experience are beyond our control.
Bathrooms: Wheelchair accessible, single stall, gender neutral.
Doors: Doors are 3 feet wide, and have automatic door opening buttons.
Climate Control: The building has AC.
Sensory Overload: We will have a designated quiet area.
Childcare: This is an 18+ event. There will be a dedicated lactation area and fridge space set aside for lactating parents. We can help connect parents with others interested in offsite childcare: opt-in during registration.
Biking: Several streets with bike lanes pass this building or nearby.
Public Transit: Several bus routes have stops within a few blocks, including
- the 4, connecting Richfield, downtown Minneapolis, and Columbia Heights
- the 18 E/C/D, connects Bloomington to downtown Minneapolis, nearest stop at Nicollet and 38th
- the 23, which links St. Paul’s Highland neighborhood with Uptown Minneapolis, intersecting the Light Rail Blue Line at the 38th Street station
- the 113, connecting NE and South Minneapolis
See https://www.metrotransit.org/ for trip planning, maps, and further public transportation details. Their app is also quite good!
Content: Descriptions for each scenario include content warnings for certain potentially troubling content as well as the level of physical activity required for participation so you can opt-in to the scenarios that will work best for you. We can’t account for everything that might happen in play though, so if you are unsure please ask.
We want to hear from you in order to accommodate you. If you have questions or would like assistance selecting scenarios that best suit you, please don’t hesitate to write us a message.
About the Venue
In addition to the code of conduct, participants will be expected to observe the following rules:
- Nothing should be taped to or hung on the walls without permission.
- Food-related waste should be disposed of promptly and messes cleaned up immediately.
- Play-related messes should be cleaned up thoroughly after the conclusion of the scenario in question.
- Participants are responsible for cleaning up after themselves throughout the event.
Nearby
There are a number of establishments and points of interest near our venue!
Grocery & Drug Stores
- Clancey’s Meats | Deli | Market – 2 min/.1 miles
- 36 Lyn Refuel Station (3551 Lyndale Ave S) – 11 min/.5 miles
- Speedway (4001 Lyndale Ave S) – 12 min/.5 miles
- Walgreens (3001A Nicollet Ave) – 27 minutes/1.2 miles – ask for a ride, we’ll be happy to provide!
Parks
- The venue includes a small outdoor space, shared by all building visitors and residents. Please be respectful.
- The Lyndale Park Rose Garden, Peace (Rock) Garden, Thomas Sadler Roberts Bird Sanctuary are all around a mile away between the eminently walkable Lake Harriet and the larger and more developed Bde Maka Ska.
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Park – on Nicollet between 40th and 42nd, outdoor baseball, basketball, and tennis courts, playground, indoor recreation center.
Looking for more?
Here’s a visitor’s guide that was put together by the good folks behind Just a Little Lovin’ USA 2017.
On-site Assistance
Staff members, including our safety team, can be identified by buttons. Staff members will be on-site for the duration of the event and are happy to assist!
If you need immediate assistance during the event and/or are unable to locate a staff member please call our safety team at 651-600-2945.
You may also contact staff through the Make a Scene! Discord which we will be monitoring closely before, during, and after the event.