Sauna Village created for this year’s Great Northern Festival

The Great Northern Festival is in its 7th year, celebrating everything winter has to offer across the Twin Cities.

More than 70 events highlight cultural, historic and trending outdoor related activities and educational training. From what might seem like outlandish ideas like re-composting human remains to seminars including climate solutions or classic customs like hockey and ice fishing.

2023 brought a new, steamy, twist to the festival – the first-ever Sauna Village debuted its thermaculture, which experts say is catching on in the metro and across the nation.

“You feel better than you remember possible,” John Pederson, a co-founder of Stokeyard Outfitters, has watched the sauna community expand over the past ten years after first building a sauna in his own backyard.

“We had a waiting list before not too long,” Pederson said. His friends and family booked sauna times months out in advance.

It was then, Pederson knew there was an opportunity for not only a business but also spreading his love for sauna-wellness; for body, mind and spirit.

“Sitting in a sauna, the way it just brings you into your body and it feels like a year’s worth of meditation in an hour,” the Stokeyard entrepreneur said.

He’s one of just thousands who have found wholeness and happiness during Minnesota’s winter months, while enjoying the steam exposure of a Sauna and the shocking cold of an ice bath.

“We stepped outside and we felt bulletproof,” said Shaelyn Crutchley, creator of Minneapolis’ Sauna Village.

She says her discovery of mental wellness in the winter was a hard one.

“One day I got a call that my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer,” Crutchley said.

When she got the devastating call, she was living on the East Coast where she had escaped the Midwest’s brutal temperatures and gloomy months-long season. The move was also a break from depression, something her father also dealt with during the long winters.

“How am I going to survive the winters back in Minneapolis?” she asked herself, replaying the decision to move home in her mind.

She was able to not only manage the move but excel, she says, after uncovering the benefits of sauna.

“Wow I can do this, it feels so good, and it made me look forward to the next day,” she said.

Crutchley said it dramatically changed her mind set to have something to look forward to each day, no matter the weather. “Now I feel like I have the cure for sadness, and I just want to shout it from the rooftop and tell everybody about it,” she added.

Minneapolis’ Great Northern Sauna Village is hosted on the backlot of The Market at Malcolm Yards and will run through February 5th, with potential of becoming a more permanent option.

According to medical journals, doctors say research has proved an increased use of sauna bathing is associated with a reduced risk of Sudden Cardiac Death, Coronary Heart Disease as well as Fatal Cardiovascular Disease. Research also shows a link between overall better heart health and the use of sauna baths.