Minnesota Discovery Center Hosts Easter Festival With Egg Hunt, Petting Zoo

Seven hundred attendees at its inaugural Easter Festival in 2025 told the Minnesota Discovery Center everything it needed to know: the Iron Range wanted affordable family programming, and the Chisholm museum could provide it.

On Saturday, April 4, the Discovery Center hosted its second annual edition of the event, expanding what worked and fixing what didn't. Marketing & Development Director Maria Hileman oversaw additions including a petting zoo from Cook's Country Connection, more face painters to cut wait times, and broader dining options, all improvements shaped by the lessons of year one.

Admission stayed at $5 for non-members and free for MDC members, with all activities included. That price point, applied to a day that packed a museum-wide egg hunt, craft stations, face painting, a live petting zoo, and a kid dance rave into a single venue at 1005 Discovery Drive, made the festival one of the most cost-effective family outings in northern St. Louis County.

Hileman told reporters the egg hunt was designed to send children through the museum's galleries rather than an open field, weaving egg collection into encounters with exhibits on Iron Range mining history and immigrant culture. The approach gives kids a reason to move through spaces they might otherwise skip and gives parents a low-pressure introduction to the museum's permanent collection.

The kid dance rave, staged in the center's theater with family-friendly lighting and music, provided younger children a space to burn energy between craft stations and animal encounters. Families were asked to leave Easter baskets at home; the museum distributed bags to ensure a consistent and fair experience throughout the hunt.

For MDC, an institution serving a rural stretch of St. Louis County where young families feel economic pressure, a $5 festival does more than fill a Saturday. Each ticket sold contributes earned revenue to the operating costs of a nonprofit museum whose mission of preserving and interpreting the history of the Iron Range depends on staying financially viable. Visitors who attend as $5 non-members are also potential year-round members, making the festival a recruitment tool as much as a programming success.