The 5th Annual Foodtruck Wars Street Festival started with a Kick-Off Event on Thursday July 25th, 2019, with food trucks, a beer garden and a Prairie Pro Wrestling show. This was the 2nd year of the festival being held in the Riversdale Business District located on 20th Street West between Avenue C and Avenue F. Our family, pet, and environmentally friendly celebration occurred on July 26, 27, and 28, 2019 and attracted 30,000 festival visitors. Our great line-up of food trucks, food trailers, and food booths offered a wide variety of food, dessert, and beverage choices throughout the festival.
The Riversdale Business District has experienced a real makeover in the past few years. We were welcomed back by many of the businesses located on and around 20th Street. We appreciated that a number of the area businesses featured Foodtruck Wars Street Festival in-store specials!
The festival included a covered table seating area, a pet watering station, a pet photo booth, hand washing stations, busking locations, a farmers market area, beer garden, street market vendors, a strongman power lifting competition, a family zone, Bartari’s video game lounge, information booth, a printed festival program, 24 food vendors, and cultural demonstrations provided by Confucius Institute, Desert Beats, Living Skies Taiko, Pavlychenko Folklorique (PFO) Ensemble, and Chinese Dance School of Saskatchewan.
The ever popular Hot Dog Havoc drew a huge crowd and the competition was one for the ages. For the first time, we had a tie between Saskatoon’s Dan Broberg & Vancouver’s John “Step Daddy J” Child; after a 2 minute eat off Dan was declared the winner. Defending champion Ken Kwan finished an honourable 3rd and comic relief was provided by 98 Cool’s Gregger who was aptly dressed up as a Hot Dog!
Because of inclement weather we were forced to reschedule the ewest Music’s Karaoke Championship and the Pie! Me Competition. Unfortunately, we decided to cancel the Flavour Challenge completely.
The ewest Music’s Karaoke Championship was held at Cracker’s Karaoke Lounge on August 11th, and Sylvia Charles was crowned the 2019 champion.
The Pie Me! Pie eating contest was held at Bartari on August 14th. Ken Kwan emerged as the winner, his third consecutive pie eating win!
We were pleased to have Affinity Credit Union’s continued partnership with Foodtruck Wars Street Festival to make the festival as environmentally sustainable as possible. This sponsorship is a perfect fit as our festival supports Affinity’s vision to build a better world and that means a greener world!
To help reduce single use plastic water bottles, we had 4 water refill stations that patrons could fill their own water bottles with water for free. We were also recycling paper, cloth & plastic bags and collecting used eye glasses to be re-used.
A huge thank you is extended to the Roxy Theatre, Peryton Books, O’Brian’s Automotive, and the Riversdale Business Improvement District for the use of their parking lots for placement of: family fun zone, entertainment stage, and table seating. And of course, thank you to the City of Saskatoon for allowing street closures, which ultimately accommodates our festival site.
There are three other Riversdale partners that joined us to help grow this festival, and at the same time help to promote and enhance the Riversdale area: Bartari Video Game Bar & Restaurant, North Star Trophies, and the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market. Bartari offered free video gaming for all festival goers during Foodtruck Wars.
We were extremely excited to partner with the Saskatoon & District Lions Clubs. At Foodtruck Wars Street Festival, the Saskatoon & District Lions Clubs were selling their Mega Cash Draw Raffle tickets. The proceeds from the raffle will go towards the construction of the Lions Centennial Park, an accessible park located in the Kensington area of Saskatoon.
We’re also happy to have Early’s Farm & Garden Centre sponsoring the Pet Watering Station and Pet Photo Booth this year, both free for festival goers.
Foodtruck Wars welcomed 92.9 The Bull FM as the festival’s Title Radio Media sponsor, Global Saskatoon as the festival’s Title Television Media sponsor and Your Saskatoon News as the Title Print Media sponsor! Their generous support and promotion helped to spread the word about our festival.
Competition Results
Bartari’s Pie! Me
- Ken Kwan 2.25
- James Amico 1.9
- Damion Hamilton 1.25
- Sylvia Charles 1.1
- ‘Eben Doherty .6
The Pie! Me contest was held at Bartari on August 14. Ken Kwan became a 3-time champion after stuffing his face in this event.
Thank you to our sponsors: Bartari, ON2U Tattoo, Saskatchewan Entertainment Expo, SIGA, Dakota Dunes Casino, Sperling Silver, CO-OP YXE Beer Wars.
Dakota Dunes Casino Hot Dog Havoc
- Dan Broberg 14, plus 4 in a tie breaker
- John ‘Step Daddy J’ Child 14, plus 3.75 in a tie breaker
- Ken Kwan 12
- Adrian Newsham 10
- Shaun Romaniuk 10
- Jesus Lopez 7
- Valentino Fox 6
- Claudia Fox 5
- Gregger the ‘Hot Dog’ 5
Thank you to our sponsors: Dakota Dunes Casino, SIGA, ON2U Tattoo, Saskatchewan Entertainment Expo, Great Western Brewing, Delta Bessborough, Sperling Silver, Bartari.
First ever tie for 1st place that required a 2-minute eat-off between Dan Broberg and special guest John ‘Step Daddy J’ Child from Vancouver. Defending champ, Ken Kwan, finished 3rd. Gregger provided excellent comic relief dressed up as a Hot Dog.
SIGA’s Flavour Challenge
Event cancelled due to inclement weather.
ewest Music’s Karaoke Challenge
1st Sylvia Charles
2nd Rebecca Giffin
3rd Jason Clark
4th Brianna Stirton
5th Ashley Werbecki
Honourable Mention – River Lily Bellegarde
The finals were held at Crackers Karaoke Lounge on August 11, 2019.
We thank our sponsors: Crackers Karaoke Lounge, ON2U Tatttoo, 92.9 The Bull, ewest Music, Saskatchewan Entertainment Expo, Dakota Dunes Casino, SIGA, Delta Bessborough, Sperling Silver, Bartari, CO-OP YXE Beer Wars.
A huge thank you goes to our judges of the finals: Dave Marcoux (Beach Radio), Trevor Dean (CFCR), Jim Sax (ewest Music) & Matt “Matticulous” (ewest Music).
Our Karaoke Challenge title sponsor, ewest Music donated the $1,000 first prize.
