Lake Harriet is the southernmost of the Chain of Lakes, a 335-acre lake in south Minneapolis surrounded by parkway trails and residential neighbourhoods that have been carefully preserved since the 1880s, when the parks commissioner Horace Cleveland persuaded the city to retain the lakes as public open space rather than allow private development on the shoreline.
The Lake Harriet Bandshell, on the northern shore, has hosted free outdoor concerts every summer since 1888 — one of the longest-running free concert series in the United States. The programme covers classical, jazz, pop, and big-band music from Memorial Day through Labor Day. The adjacent Lake Harriet Streetcar Line, a restored segment of Minneapolis's original streetcar system, operates between the bandshell and the Lynhurst neighbourhood from May through October. The rose garden on the north shore is in bloom from June through September.