The Lemonade Concert & Art Fair is one of St. Cloud State University’s best-known campus traditions, and marks the opening of the St. Cloud Granite City Days community-wide event. Lemonade returned June 25 for the 53rd annual year with over 130 vendors coming to campus for the yearly celebration of arts and music. The day concluded with the Lemonade President’s Reception inside of Atwood Memorial Center and the Lemonade Concert inside of Ritsche Auditorium.
The reception finished off the first Lemonade for SCSU President Greg Tomso, who joined the University in January. Dr. Tomso along with St. Cloud Mayor Jake Anderson ’03 spoke of their commitment to strengthening the relationships and connections between the University and the community.
“I am gratified to know that Husky pride is alive and well, and that we are planting seeds across the community with our Community Advisory Board made up of regional business and civic leaders coming together to form real partnerships and connections that will make us all stronger and help sustain our shared future,” Tomso said.
Anderson — who is a fourth-generation SCSU alum — spoke of the importance of SCSU and the city of St. Cloud to each other.
“I often think back to ‘how do we make things stronger?'” Anderson said. “With the Community Advisory Board and renewed commitments from the city and the University to work together, I think we can do a lot of good on that front.”
St. Cloud Symphony Orchestra Artistic Director and Conductor Kornel Thomas was also a speaker featured at Thursday’s reception. Thomas previewed the concert portion of the evening during the reception, which was emceed by Dr. Katherina Pattit, SCSU provost and vice president for academic affairs. The Symphony Orchestra has performed during the Lemonade Concert for the past 30 years.
Pattit closed the 2026 Lemonade President’s Reception by reading audience-submitted questions for Tomso to answer as part of an inaugural Lemonade Q&A session.
Following the reception, Anderson and Tomso officially opened Granite City Days with a lemonade toast inside Ritsche Auditorium. Granite City Days’ Rock On Award winners were recognized as well before the St. Cloud Symphony Orchestra performed the annual Lemonade concert.
See more photos from the Lemonade Concert & Art Fair below. Want to share your photos? Send them to [email protected] to add them to the gallery.
