Iconic Minnesota Festival Site Ravaged By Massive Fire: See the Aftermath

One of Minnesota's biggest events suffered a major blow yesterday when a massive fire broke out and burned several buildings and hundreds of vendor booths to the ground.

A line of heavy thunderstorms may be to blame for the fire that required the response from 12 fire departments and took several hours to fully extinguish. Thankfully, there were no injuries reported, but decisions will need to be made on how to move forward with the 2025 event.

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Fire Levels Hundreds of Booths at Minnesota Renaissance Festival

The blaze started around 6 PM last night at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival grounds. Crews had the fire contained within a couple of hours. However, the Shakopee Fire Department informed KARE 11 that a lack of water on the property slowed down the firefighting efforts.

The fire appears to have damaged an estimated 300 food and merchandise booths on the property. One Ren Fest vendor, Doo's Wingalings, posted to social media, "We have heard that our booth was probably drastically damaged in the fire along with the booths of many of our neighbors."

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The festival is set to open in just four months, and anticipation was high, particularly after the recent announcement that magicians Penn & Teller would return for a special one-day appearance at the event where their iconic 50-year career began.

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This isn't the first time the festival has dealt with such an incident. In 2011, an early morning fire destroyed a food booth and damaged several nearby booths while the festival was open, but the event continued as planned.

Festival organizer Mid-America Festivals told CBS News that they expect the festival will open as scheduled in 2025 despite the extensive damage to the property.