Submitted Photo
Eric Thoemke, Minot Food Truck Festival executive director, and Matthew Maldonado, digital media specialist with ND Strong, pose plates of hot dogs for a food eating contest at the 2023 festival in Oak Park.

Oak Park in Minot will be buzzing on Sunday, Aug. 25, at the seventh annual Minot Food Truck Festival.

The festival is hosted by ND Strong, an education nonprofit that funds The Film Dudes program, which provides opportunities for students throughout the state to get hands-on experience making films and creating content.

Throughout the year, The Film Dudes travel across North Dakota and work with schools and other academic institutions in teaching the integration of media production into curriculum, conducting workshops with staff and students and exhibiting film opportunities throughout the state.

Eric Thoemke, the festival director, said 20 trucks will be at the 2024 festival, which also will showcase around 20 local vendors, concerts, free food eating contests, music performances, fire throwers, 15 bounce castles and other free activities, such as mini golf and ax throwing for children and families. A majority of the food trucks are based in North Dakota, but Thoemke said some vendors from previous years have hailed from South Dakota and even Las Vegas.

“It’s a perfect time of the year. The weather is normally perfect. Everyone comes to the park one day and it really feels like a bigger city atmosphere. There’s music playing, tons of variety of food. There’s artists doing artwork on the site, and we’re looking to add so much more this year. We’re pretty excited about it. There’s a lot of community involvement, and I think that’s what makes it most special. It’s an awesome event in the park, and you don’t get too many of those in the summer that are this size,” Thoemke said.

The first food truck festival in 2017 had 13 trucks participating, and Thoemke said the community turnout blew away their expectations.

“We were only expecting 500 people to show up. I think almost all the food trucks sold out the first year. We had over 5,000 people show up. We were running around with our heads cut off,” Thoemke said.

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – A 28-year-old Bismarck man was arrested after a crash in front of the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum on Sunday around 3:15 p.m.

The North Dakota Highway Patrol said he was driving an SUV south on State Street at a high rate of speed, lost control and drove off the road into the west ditch.

The driver and a 34-year-old passenger were not wearing seatbelts but were not injured. A 6-year-old boy in the vehicle was transported to the hospital for minor injuries and authorities said he was not restrained with a seatbelt or child restraint system at the time of the crash.

The driver was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol with a minor present, reckless driving, driving under suspension and child neglect.

The crash remains under investigation.

Copyright 2024 KFYR. All rights reserved.

WATFORD CITY, N.D. — A 55-year-old Watford City man died in a motorcycle crash early Sunday, Aug. 3, in McKenzie County.

The man was driving a 1998 Honda VF2 motorcycle west on state Highway 23, about 20 miles west of New Town, when he lost control of the bike, according to a North Dakota Highway Patrol report.

He was thrown from the motorcycle and was pronounced dead on the scene, according to the Highway Patrol.

The man was wearing a helmet.

Law enforcement said the man’s name will be released after family have been notified. The Highway Patrol continues to investigate the crash.

Other agencies who responded to the crash were the McKenzie County Sheriff’s Office, Three Affiliated Tribes Police, Keene Rural Fire Department and McKenzie County Ambulance.

New Town is roughly 50 miles northeast of Watford City.

Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.