Minnesota will be the flagship of the “No Kings” protest movement when Bruce Springsteen performs Streets of Minneapolis in a US state where emotions are still raw over President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown and the deaths of two residents shot by federal officers.
More than 3100 events are being organised in communities large and small across all 50 states, with more than nine million people expected to take part.
Organisers have designated the Minnesota rally, at the State Capitol in St Paul, as Saturday’s flagship event.
They have told a state oversight agency that 100,000 people could converge on the Capitol complex, where the previous event in June 2025 drew an estimated 80,000 people.
The movement was spreading around the world, said Ezra Levin, a co-founder of Indivisible, the activist group spearheading the events.
Rallies were also planned in other countries, he said, including Canada, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Mexico and Australia.
Besides Springsteen, the St Paul rally will also feature singer Joan Baez and actor Jane Fonda, who have been noted for their activism since the Vietnam War era, and senator Bernie Sanders, a hero of the progressive movement.
Levin said the national organisers chose Minnesota because it was subject to “some of the most horrific, sadistic behaviour you can imagine" from the Trump administration.
“At the same time, in the Twin Cities earlier this year, we saw some of the most inspiring, neighbourly, brave organising that we've seen anywhere in the country, and it serves as an inspiration to all of us,” Levin said.
This will be the third round of “No Kings” protests, which often have a street festival vibe.
They are organised by a broad coalition of groups opposed to what they call authoritarianism under Trump, and his attempts to consolidate and expand his power.
Organisers say more than five million people took to the streets at more than 2100 events in June 2025, followed by more than seven million people at more than 2700 events in October.
Organisers announced Saturday's protests in January, shortly after the killings in Minneapolis of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Plans had already been in the works, but their deaths during the surge of about 3000 federal officers into Minnesota provided a new focus.
Opposition to the war in Iran, which the US and Israel launched with air strikes on February 28, was expected to draw even more people to the protests, Levin said.
Trump reacted to previous “No Kings” rallies by insisting “I’m not a king” and saying attendees were “not representative of the people of our country”.
