The banners are up on Chippendale, the carnival trucks are staged behind Central Park, and by the time you read this the first clue in the medallion hunt is either about to drop or already gone. If you have lived in Rosemount for more than a summer, you know the rhythm. If you are trying to plan the week around soccer practice, a visiting grandparent, and one honest attempt at the Grand Day Parade, the rhythm is exactly the problem.
Here is the useful frame. Leprechaun Days is not one festival. It is three festivals sharing a name and a set of volunteers, and each one runs on its own clock. Treat the whole week as a single blur and you will show up on the wrong night for the thing you actually wanted to see. Treat it as three, and the week gets a lot easier.
Festival one: the quiet weekday half
Monday through Thursday is the version of Leprechaun Days that longtime residents talk about and newcomers tend to miss. It is quieter, cheaper, and mostly walkable from wherever you already are.
The Leprechaun's Lost Medallion Hunt starts at 9 a.m., with the first clue released Monday, July 20 and each following day at 9 a.m. at Merchants Bank at 15055 Chippendale Ave. W., and online at SunThisweek.com until July 25 or until the medallion is found, with cash prizes to the winner. If you have a kid who lives on their phone anyway, the hunt is a decent way to point that energy at the actual parks system for a week.
Monday evening does double duty. The Kid's Dance runs 5 to 7 p.m. at Rosemount American Legion, 14590 Burma Ave W., a free event hosted by the Women's Auxiliary and Rosemount PD for kids 10 and under with pizza, lemonade, and door prizes. Then at 7, the 60-plus member Rosemount Community Band under the direction of Tom Maeck plays a Central Park summer concert titled "Cinemagic," featuring music from Lawrence of Arabia, Chicago, Aladdin, Toy Story, and James Bond. Bring a chair. That concert is the closest thing this week has to a formal event that costs nothing and asks nothing of you.
If you have grade-schoolers, the library is running a background art project all week. An exhibit of Leprechaun Days button contest artwork is on display in the Robert Trail Library gallery during regular operating hours June 1 through Leprechaun Days, July 18-25, including designs submitted by local students and images of completed buttons from past years. It is a five-minute stop that pairs well with a walk to Central Park.
Festival two: the Midsummer Faire
Friday afternoon is when the tone changes. The carnival opens, Central Park gates go up, and the town center compresses around 145th Street.
The eight days of Leprechaun Days wrap up with the Midsummer Faire, July 23-25 in Central Park, along with the Grand Day Parade and a fireworks display. Everything you would call "the festival" in a text to a friend happens in this window.
A quick orientation on the grounds. The Faire runs at Central Park at 2893 145th St W with three gated entry points: a North Entrance via the path in Erickson Park, a West Entrance via the path near the amphitheater from the public parking lot off Hwy 3, and a South Entrance. The West Entrance is the one to know if you are parking in a lot rather than a neighbor's driveway.
If you are picking one night, here is the plain-language read on what each is best for.
| Night | Best for | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Friday | Adults who want the carnival lights without the Saturday density | Carnival, live music, food and drinks; ride wristbands available |
| Saturday | Families going all-in | Longest hours; unlimited ride wristbands run $30 |
| Sunday | Anyone who came for the parade and fireworks | The day's centerpiece is the procession and the closing show |
The Saturday food and drink lineup is the piece most residents underestimate. Saturday's carnival runs 1 to 11 p.m. with food, games, and rides, unlimited ride wristbands at $30, and a beer garden from 1 to 5 p.m. featuring Fireside, OMNI Brewery & Taproom, North 20 Brewing, and Las Tortillas. Two of those beer garden names, Fireside and OMNI, are Rosemount and south-metro operators you can already visit any weekend. North 20 out of Cottage Grove is the one to try if you have not.
Food follows the same pattern. Saturday food vendors include Samosa Sambusa, Las Tortillas, Big Ben's Kettle Corn, The American Dream Machine, Hometown Creamery, California Dip & Eat, Rita's Italian Ice, and the Waffl stand that many locals know from other summer festivals. Entertainment closes out with Mason Dixon Line playing 7 to 11 p.m., which is worth walking over for even if you had planned to head home after dinner.
Two other Faire-adjacent things sit on the calendar. The Rosemount Leprechaun Days Car Show hits Rosemount on July 18, 2026, which is opening Saturday. And the "Grill your ACE Off" annual rib competition invites solo grillers and teams to compete for the tastiest ribs in town, sponsored by Pellicci ACE Hardware, City of Rosemount, and Von Hanson's. If your neighbor is the type to enter, this is the year to finally ask.
Festival three: the Sunday close
Sunday is a different animal. It is louder, more crowded, and the one day where the whole town more or less shows up at the same time.
Before the parade, the Waffle and Sausage Breakfast runs all-you-can-eat at $10 per person, children 5 and under eat free, with tickets available at the door or from any Rosemount Firefighter, cash or check only, hosted by the Rosemount Fire Relief. Get there early. The line outside the fire station is part of the tradition, and if you have kids they will remember the firefighters more than the waffles.
Then comes the Grand Day Parade and the fireworks that close the week. If you have staked out a curb spot in the past, keep doing what you are doing. If you have not, the honest advice is to walk in from a residential block rather than trying to park close.
A small piece of housekeeping on the date
If you searched for Leprechaun Days this week and got confused, you were not imagining it. The festival's own site and Minnesota Parent list July 18 through the 25, while the City of Rosemount calendar page lists Leprechaun Days as running July 20 through July 27 with various activities throughout the weeklong festival, run by volunteers with the help of Parks & Recreation. The festival's own schedule is the one to trust for gate hours and event start times. If you drove to Central Park expecting a Faire on July 26 or 27 based on the City calendar, that is why the gates were down.
The one planning move that saves the week
If you do nothing else with this post, do this. Pick one night from festival one, one night from festival two, and Sunday. That is your Leprechaun Days.
A Monday concert in the park with the community band. A Saturday afternoon at the beer garden while the kids are on wristbands. Sunday breakfast at the fire station and the parade after. Three commitments, spread across the week, that will not leave anyone in your house exhausted by Wednesday and burned out on carnival food by Friday. Skip the medallion hunt if you do not have the bandwidth to check clues every morning at 9. Skip the Faire entirely if crowds are not your thing, and go to the Central Park concert on a Monday instead.
Rosemount's summer calendar has a lot of good weekends, but this is the one that consistently pulls the whole town onto the same block. The rest of the neighborhoods in the south metro have their own versions: Apple Valley's summer concerts, Lakeville's Pan-O-Prog. Leprechaun Days is ours, and it holds up because the volunteers who run it treat it like a set of small events rather than one big one. Planning it the same way is the trick.
If you are already thinking past the festival to what your house looks like on the other side of the summer, or you have inherited a Rosemount property and are trying to figure out timing, The Kent Group is here when you are ready. Get a current home value, ask a question, or just start a conversation. We live in this market the same way you do, one Central Park Saturday at a time.
