Photo: #One of several giant puppets used annually in In the Heart of the Beast's MayDay Parade and Festival watches over the puppet workshop. Puppets representing earth, water and air have been part of the event since it started in 1975.
Photo: #These two young volunteers play inside a paper mache pig. The girls will both play the role of "fertilizer" in Sunday's 35th Annual MayDay Parade. The theme this year is "Our Common Treasury -- Dig it".
Photo: #Puppet parts are decorated and assembled at one of several evening workshops to prepare for Sunday's 35th Annual MayDay Parade and Festival in Minneapolis.
Photo: #Puppets old and new fill the workshop of In The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in Minneapolis. Each will play a role in Sunday's 35th Annual MayDay Parade and Festival.
Photo: #The headless body of a giant Pete Seeger hangs in the workshop of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in Minneapolis. A head and banjo will be added to this "backpack puppet" before Sunday's MayDay Festival at Powderhorn Park. Singers from St. Paul's One Voice Mixed Chorus will accompany the Seeger puppet during the event.
Photo: #Puppets fill the workshop at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in Minneapolis ahead of Sunday's 35th Annual MayDay Parade.
Photo: #Young volunteers model their spider costumes for Sunday's 35th Annual MayDay Parade and Festival in Minneapolis.
Photo: #Young volunteers put finishing touches on a set of wearable puppets outside In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre. The puppets will be part of Sunday's 35th Annual MayDay Parade and Festival. Part of the parade features "all the king's horses and all the kings men" riding to the rescue of a collapsing economy.
Photo: #Giant spiders will be part of this year's 35th Annual MayDay Parade in Minneapolis. The legs are made of paper mache and painted by staff and volunteers at In The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre.
Photo: #Volunteers sew pinwheels onto the pants for a stilt-walker in Sunday's 35th Annual MayDay Parade.
Photo: #Volunteers at the In the Heart of the Beast MayDay puppet workshop go through a lot of paper mache. These pig masks will be part of Sunday's 35th Annual MayDay Parade.
Larger view
One of several giant puppets used annually in In the Heart of the Beast's MayDay Parade and Festival watches over the puppet workshop. Puppets representing earth, water and air have been part of the event since it started in 1975. (MPR Photo/Suzanne Pekow)
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May Day puppet parade and festival celebrates 35 years

May 1, 2009

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by Suzanne Pekow, Minnesota Public Radio

For the 35th year in a row, giant puppets will parade through the streets of south Minneapolis to celebrate the end of winter. In The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre created the MayDay festival in 1975, just two weeks after the end of the Vietnam War.

The festival now includes the parade (starting at 1 p.m. at the corner of Bloomington Avenue and 26th St.), a "Tree of Life Ceremony" (at 3 p.m.) and an afternoon-long festival with music and food -- both in Powderhorn Park.

Minnesota Public Radio's Suzanne Pekow visited the puppet workshop to see what parade participants were creating and find out what the event means to the community after 35 years.

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