FAQ

door sales merch payment classes AC kids competition theme night lessons beforehand facebook/signal covid transfer/postpone illness housing fragrance policy buy music accessibility transit stuff to do restaurants event food other

Can I buy tickets for part of North Star ahead of time? Will there be tickets available at the door?

We only sell full weekend passes ahead of time because we prioritize event attendees who plan to attend the entire event. Without pre registrations it would be impossible to run North Star as we have to pay deposits and buy food and supplies ahead of time. We greatly appreciate everyone who registers early!

If we do not sell out before the event, we will have tickets available at the door. Pricing is below:

  • Thursday house party (8pm–12am)
    $20
  • Friday night (8pm–2am)
    $55 ($20 after 11:30)
  • Saturday night (8pm–3am)
    $65 ($25 after 11:30)
  • Sunday afternoon (1–5)
    $20
  • Sunday night (8pm–2am)
    $40 ($15 after 11:30)
  • North Star fans
    $8

Can I get merch?

Yes! We have shirts, tote bags, mugs, and fans available through registration until August 15th. After then, or if you want a different style or color versus what we’re offering then you can order items at TeePublic. We may have some fans available for purchase at the door for $8 ($5 if purchased via registration). For all other items, we will only order what people request through registration because historically ordering extras for purchase weekend-of leads to a pile of unsold items in one of our organizer's closets for years.

What payment methods do you accept?

For registration ahead of time we accept Venmo (@collectivelyblue or account.venmo.com/u/collectivelyblue) and PayPal (collectivelyblue@gmail.com or paypal.com/paypalme/collectivelyblue). Both PayPal and Venmo are free to create an account and you can link them to a bank account or credit/debit card.

If we are not sold out before the event, we will also accept credit cards at the door via Square. We do not accept cash or checks for North Star or any Collectively Blue event.

Are there classes?

Nope! Just a full weekend of great music, hangouts, dancing, and partying.

Will there be air conditioning?

Yes! All of our venues have AC. Air conditioning cannot always keep up with a full room of dancers, but we'll do our best. We'll have water, please drink it! There will be some cold treats!

Can I bring my kids?

We want dancers with kids to be able to dance with us! Both of our afternoon events are totally family friendly.

  • Our Saturday afternoon hang out at Midtown Global Market is in a public free-to-access space and we encourage you to bring kids, family, and friends.
  • Our Sunday afternoon hang out is at Kieran’s Irish Pub and will be $20 for adults to attend if they are not registered for North Star, but free for kids 10 and under.
  • At our evening dances at the PNA Hall there will be alcohol served and live bands playing both nights. At Four Seasons on Sunday night, BYOB will be welcome for dancers over 21, and the music will all be DJed. Four Seasons also has a back room that is a somewhat quieter space. We will be prioritizing comfortable dancing volume and not kid-friendly volume. If you’d like to bring kids to the evening dance we’d defer to your knowledge of your own kids! Send us an email if you have questions at northstarblues.exchange@gmail.com

If you have a child who is 10 or younger (babies are absolutely welcome), we will have a group childcare option Friday through Sunday evenings of North Star. We’re not sure that it would be possible to find someone more qualified than Lindy’s mother-in-law, Karmen, to care for your little ones! Please let us know if you are interested in evening childcare on your registration form and Emily Troe will follow up with you.

Karmen

My name is Karmen Blakeborough. I live in Prior Lake, MN with my husband Jay and our 2 labradors, Bud and Bella. We have 3 grown children and 3 grandsons. I graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College with a BS degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education. I also earned a minor degree in Music. I played the piano and sang in the senior choir.

Over the past 30 years I have worked with children ages birth – 5th grade and their parents. I have worked as a School-age childcare teacher, Preschool Director, Kindermusic Teacher, Kindergarten Teacher and Substitute teacher. Currently I run a piano studio out of my home.

My favorite activities are playing with my grandsons, spending time at our family lake-home, completing word puzzles, playing the piano and reading biographies and historical fiction books.

Will you have a competition this year? What will it be like? When will it take place?

Yes! We will again have a peer-judged social comp this year. We will have the prelims for both leads and follows take place during the first band break, second band set, and second band set on Saturday night — or approximately 9:15pm–11pm. Unlike the past two years, both roles will be judged simultaneously so participants will have to choose one dance role. Finals will take place around 10pm on Sunday for the top 5 leads and follows. We’re still working out the details of the finals but plan to have 10 finalists who will select the top competitors of the opposite role. We plan on providing cash prizes to all finalists with higher amounts for the top finalists.

Will there be a themed outfit night again this year?

This year, we're really putting the star in North Star Blues! It's a Saturday evening celestial soirée. Join your fellow stars in Minnesota this fall — we hope you're ready to sparkle and shine. That said, please be mindful that some folks may say no to a dance if you’re wearing glitter!

I’d like to take a few lessons to get familiar with blues dancing or brush up before North Star, do you have lessons available?

Yes! We have a 3 week series scheduled with head teacher Emily Troe Djrouko in August. You can get more information and register here.

Will I miss information if I don't have social media?

The facebook event is public — at least on desktop you should be able to see the posts there without signing in. We'll do our best to make sure all information is on the website too! We also have a signal group this year! You can join to get updates, ask questions, etc.

What is the covid policy?

In alignment with general social norms we will not have COVID-19 vaccine/testing requirements. Masks will be welcome but not required. N95s will be available for free at the door.

Can I transfer or postpone my pass or get a refund?

No refunds will be issued for any reason. Dancers may transfer a pass to another person (email the pass recipient and northstarblues.exchange@gmail.com to coordinate), or in the case of last minute illness/injury/other emergency may defer their pass to North Star Blues 2026.

What if I get sick?

To protect our community, if you are experiencing symptoms of any communicable illness at the time of the event, you will not be allowed to attend and your pass will be deferred to next year's North Star Blues. All dancers are expected to pay attention to their own health and send an email to northstarblues.exchange@gmail.com if they have attended part of the event and have developed symptoms consistent with a communicable illness. The North Star Blues organizer team will then alert all event attendees via the email addresses provided on this registration form. We will not reveal the name of the person reporting, unless they explicitly say that they prefer we do.

Is housing available?

You'll be able to request housing when you register. Although we cannot guarantee housing placement, we've been able to find spots for everyone who requested housing in the last 5 years of North Star Blues. Housing assignments typically go out in early August by email. We do ask in our housing form whether you can comfortably afford to stay elsewhere. If we're running out of spots and you checked this option, we'll get in touch.

What is the fragrance policy?

Please don't bring or use strongly fragranced products, as we have community members who are fragrance sensitive. The biggest offenders for fragrance sensitive folks are generally perfume/cologne, strongly scented lotions (think Bath and Body Works), and scented hand sanitizer. Scented deodorant and most hair products are generally not an issue. We’ll provide plenty of unscented hand sanitizer!

There was a song I loved! How can I listen to it more?

For DJed songs, we encourage you to ask the DJ about the song! Sharing music is a big part of the blues dance culture and our DJs will consider it a huge compliment (and they are more accurate than Shazam!). We encourage you to buy songs if at all possible to support artists and their descendants.

For our live musicians we highly encourage you to buy their albums! They will have some CDs for sale in person or you can buy from them online:

How accessible are the venues?

  • Lindy’s house has several front steps, and has a first floor bathroom.
  • PNA Hall has a flight of stairs to get to the space we'll be in, and has multi-stall bathrooms that we will label all-gender.
  • Midtown Global Market is has access ramps and multi-stall mens/womens bathrooms with ADA accessible stalls.
  • Four Seasons has an access ramp and single-stall all-gender bathrooms.

We’d love to hear from you if any of this brings up any concerns for you or if there are other aspects of accessibility you have questions about or need help with.

What is the public transit/rideshare situation in the Twin Cities?

We have a bus and light rail system, including a light rail line directly to the airport. You can use google maps to navigate it. It works, but as with most US cities it can take a while. Lyft and Uber are also available.

I’ll be in town Friday/Monday, what should I do?

We encourage locals to post on the facebook group if they are interested in hosting folks who want to do things like play board games. We’d also recommend:

Where should I eat?

Here's a map with the venues and a bunch of recommendations!

What food will you provide? How do you handle allergies and dietary restrictions?

We will provide late night snacks (think: cookies, fruits and veggies, hummus and chips, cheese and crackers, etc) on Friday just after the band ends around midnight. Saturday we’ll do a hot food item, also right after the band ends around midnight. Sunday we’ll do snacks again and likely put them out a little earlier since we won’t have a live band. We will label allergens attendees identify in their registration in these items and make sure we have options that will work for a variety of diets (gluten free, vegetarian, vegan for sure). We will avoid any foods with peanuts or tree nuts and ask that you do not bring any into any of our venues.

What if my question isn’t in the FAQ?

If you still have questions, please email northstarblues.exchange@gmail.com and we will get back to you within a few days. This is an organization run on enthusiasm, we try to respond quickly but sometimes the rest of life gets busy!