crankiefest! 2026

A couple years back at the Minneapolis Ice Shanty Projects I ducked into one of the shanties called the Cranky Cabin. Musicians played while they passed around crayons and a collaborative crankie. A crankie being an old-fashioned storytelling art form where a long, illustrated scroll is wound between two spools inside a box and hand-cranked past a viewing window. I learned the group was there with a local event called Crankiefest where they featured numerous crankie artists at a backyard festival. I then completely forgot about it until early 2026. When I finally looked it up, I was totally blown away by what they had put together and was amped to attend in fall.

When the weekend arrived it was worrisomely rainy but luckily they were able to continue as scheduled. We arrived at the backyard entrance in the alleyway and checked in. As the event was in a residential area, people were encouraged to bike and the garages opposite had numerous bike racks in use. Once inside, I was totally amazed by the cardboard booths and stage. The stage was a massive cardboard edifice with stage lights poking through. A Punch and Judy themed drink stand where they served "Punch Rum" and "Mint Judys" among other things. Even the Exit box signs were made with cardboard, but were so convincing I didn't even realize until intermission! The old Crankie Cabin ice house had even been repurposed as a merch booth and popcorn stand.

The event lasted three hours with an intermission. We were totally blown away by the quality, variety, and artistry put forth by the over 10 different crankie performances. They spanned all genres (horror, comedy, commentary, adventure, etc) and made completely different uses of the crankie storytelling form. Some performances were lit from the front, but most were lit from behind with lamps or flashlights. These made use of shadow puppets or used transparency sheets to create an animation-like effect. The viewing windows themselves were their own source of creativity.  One of the performances used a tall bunk bed for the reels, with the story scrolling from the bottom bunk up to a cloth doll on top bunk. The story was sewn as images on a quilt that slowly wrapped around the sleeper as he tossed in his bed. Another performance had two screens stacked on top of each other as the sails on a ship's mast. Crankies were worn, carried around a scene, and even hidden as one artist made use of an overhead projector. Even the more simplistic performances had an original twist like flipping the viewing window box on its side for the finale. 

Auditorily, performances varied from live singing/narration, to pre-recorded sound effects, and even recorded singing with a live musician under. Several requested or naturally spawned audience participation like people booing for villains and cheering for their hero, a repeated chorus becoming a sing along, or making sounds effect when a cat appeared. The closeness and casualty of the venue really encouraged a kind of camaraderie with the audience and the performers. After all, we were all just sitting in the backyard together. Even if it was a backyard that had been magically transformed into a theater.