Excelsior Concerts: Free Live Music (2025 Lineup)

My favorite summer series around Lake Minnetonka is the annual “Concerts in the Commons.” This is a completely free set of concerts, every other Wednesday, from late May to late August at the Excelsior Commons park.

It’s free, it’s outside, and there’s live music and food trucks. What’s not to love?

The most important information is bulleted here, but you can find details and my tips or advice further below.

• Food trucks open at 5pm
• Parking is pretty easy around 5pm
• You must bring your own chairs or blankets
• Music starts at 7pm

Excelsior Commons Park

135 Lake St, Excelsior, MN 55331

This is a flat, 13-acre park right on the shore of Lake Minnetonka. It features a permanent band shell for these performances.

Parking for Excelsior Concerts

Admittedly, parking is a pain. Half of the parking spaces alongside the park are taken up by food trucks. However, there is a neighborhood around the corner from the park with paid street parking. But, if you go far enough up the neighborhood (3-4 blocks), the street parking becomes free.

Otherwise, you can hope to get lucky with a spot in downtown Excelsior, or in one of the two general parking lots off of Water Street. But from there, it’ll be a 4-5 block walk anyway to the park, so the neighborhood is usually preferred.

There is a free shuttle service as well from the public library to the park, from 5:30pm – 9:00pm, but your best bet is to come early and find a spot for yourself.

Seating & Shade

There are a handful of picnic tables available (4-5), but otherwise you’ll have to bring your own seating or blankets. If you arrive around 5pm, you can typically get one of the picnic tables.

Shade is minimal, and only at the back of the park furthest from the stage. If you don’t feel the need to sit up close, you can usually get shaded seating up until 6:00pm or 6:30pm.

Food & Drink

Opens at 5pm

Excelsior Concerts Foodtrucks

Each concert, there’s typically 8-12 food trucks to choose from. A few of these only serve niche items like flavored ice and banana bread.

There’s no set schedule for the food trucks, so there’s usually a few staples that are always there for the Excelsior concerts and a handful of new ones each time. You’ll basically always be able to find hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, barbeque, and fries. But depending on the day, you’ll also find empanadas, pizza, gyros, hibachi, and more.

Last year (2024), the food trucks I saw most frequently were:

• DelSur Empanadas
• Hibachi Daruma
• Kenny’s Meatball Wagon
• Kona Ice
• Russell’s Travelling Kitchen
• Zoe’s Banana Bread

What’s to Drink?

The drinks are served by volunteers from the Rotary Club. You first have to show your ID to get a wristband, and then you can order from their booth. They’ll have 3-4 beers on tap and one or two red & white wine options. Last summer (2024), they briefly experimented with offering shots of cinnamon-flavored whiskey, so we’ll see if that continues this year.

(For more on local beer, see: Lake Minnetonka Breweries: By Boat, By Bike.)

The cups they provide are reusable. When you’re finished, they have designated bins in which to discard them. At the end of the event, all of the cups are shipped away and professionally cleaned to be re-used again.

There’s also a water truck as well, if you simply need to hydrate.

Kid-Friendly

You’ll see all ages at the concerts, but if you show up early (5pm – 6pm), that’s the prime time for young kids. Families setup their blankets, order some food, and let their kids run around in the grass.

It’s not advertised on the website, but about half of the concerts also have a “kids” period starting at about 5:30pm or 6:00pm, with bubbles and hula hoops and kid-friendly songs. These tend to occur more in July and August than May or June.

For these families, the concert series is just a great excuse to get outside with their family and try some new food. You’ll often see them packing up and leaving just when the music starts at 7pm.

2025 Excelsior Concerts Lineup

Starts at 7pm

Note that Gear Daddies draws the largest crowd, and many attendees will be arriving much earlier than usual to get parking and good seating on that day.

If you have any other questions, you can visit the Rotary Club’s official page for the Excelsior Concerts.