It took only about three hours for the Twin Cities' definitive cultural moment of 2016 to come together, and a few more hours for it to set the tone for the months that followed.
The staff at 89.3 the Current got an early tip from a source in Chanhassen on the morning of April 21: A body had been removed from Paisley Park. While holding out hope that it wasn't Prince, the radio station's brass met right away to discuss the worst-case scenario. A plan to go with an all-Prince playlist on air seemed easy enough. But was it enough?
"Our events director, Jeff Hnilicka, said, 'I think we need to do some kind of event on the street — and we need to do it today,' " recalled Jim McGuinn, the Current's program director.
"The plan was put in motion around 2 p.m. By 5 p.m., we were more or less in business. It was as amazing as that sounds."
And the impromptu street memorial that followed turned out as amazing as it looked on CNN and other TV news outlets worldwide.
Reports filed from the corner of 1st Avenue and 7th Street in downtown Minneapolis on the night of Prince's death showed 10,000-plus people crying, hugging, dancing and singing in unison outside the First Avenue nightclub, where an all-night dance marathon followed inside. The images of those events were breathtaking.
A city that never quite knew what to make of its most famous resident when he was alive seemed to know exactly what to do upon his death: In short, let the music do the talking.
The Current's street fest — a true team effort with First Ave's fast-acting staff and Minneapolis' tolerant city staffers and police — was the first in a steady stream of Twin Cities musical Prince tributes with tasteful intentions, irrepressible emotions and irresistible music. Prince's genius was always front and center at these events, of course, but the organizers and especially the musicians involved should be commended for doing this city and their hero proud.
