fire damages several buildings on Renaissance Festival grounds (WCCO)
SHAKOPEE, Minn. (KFGO WCCO) – The Minnesota Renaissance Festival is expected to open on schedule late this summer after a fire broke out at the outdoor venue in Shakopee on Thursday night. Lightning is the suspected cause of the fires.
The Shakopee Fire Department was called to the festival grounds at about 6 p.m. and arrived to find five connected structures fully engulfed. Crews had difficulties containing the flames due to a lack of water supply in the area.
“The festival grounds are not connected to a municipal water system, requiring water tenders to shuttle water from hydrants nearly eight minutes away,” officials said.
It took crews from about a dozen fire departments a couple of hours to put out the fire, which fire officials say destroyed 10 structures, including “retail shops and food vendors.” Investigators are still determining the full extent of the damage. The response was also hampered by the lack of lighting, “minimally maintained gravel roads, recent rainfall and challenging terrain.”
In a statement released on Friday morning, Stephanie Whipps, executive director of Mid-America Festivals, thanked the area fire departments that converged to help fight the flames.
“The Minnesota Renaissance Festival community is resilient, and we will work to rebuild and bring back the magic as soon as possible,” Whipps said.
The Minnesota State Fire Marshal’s Office is assisting with the investigation.
The festival, scheduled to run on weekends from Aug. 16 through Sept. 28, celebrates 54 years this summer. It’s grown to be the largest festival of its kind in the country with 300,000 people visiting the grounds each year.
On opening day, the magic-comedy duo Penn & Teller, whose first-ever performance together was at the festival in 1975, will return for a special 50th anniversary show.
In St. Paul, a church steeple caught on fire about 30 minutes before the festival fire was reported, and investigators suspect lightning in that case.
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