The province lifting health restrictions on July 11 is the green light festival organizers Rick and David Mah needed to get the trucks back on the street.

“With the COVID restrictions, it has been a really tough go trying to organize anything,” Rick Mah said. “With the uncertainty, we have had to make some cuts to the festival. We shortened it to three days and we have shortened the hours, too.”

The festival will run from July 22- 24 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day.

He said they had to cut “pretty much” all of the entertainment, including such things as the hot dog eating contest, cultural dancing, karaoke and the pro wrestling cards. In addition, there will be no beer garden this year.

He said the festival is going back to basics. He said that includes the trucks, trailers, booths and street market vendors. There will be buskers as well. He said there would be a video game lounge for the kids to come and play for free.

Mah said there will be table seating and we welcome responsible pet owners to bring their pets; we will have a Pet Water Station to help keep their pets hydrated while at the festival.

“The main attraction is going to be the number of food choices at the festival. We have food vendors coming from: Winnipeg, Regina, Prince Albert and Biggar. For many of these vendors, Foodtruck Wars will be their only appearance in Saskatoon this year.”

Mah said people are itching to get out after a 16-month lockdown.

“We thought it was important to run a festival this year. No. 1, our festival had good traction and we didn’t want to lose momentum. We already lost one year. If you lose two years, that gets really tough to get that momentum going again.

“No. 2, the food venders are suffering. They haven’t had a lot of revenue coming in. A festival like this will give them the opportunity to get a revenue stream going again, and feel good about themselves.

“We are going to operate as safely as possible. That’s even with the restrictions lifted. We would still welcome mask wearing, and if you aren’t feeling well, don’t attend.“

Mah said the festival is moving downtown after the Saskatoon business improvement district rolled out the red carpet for them.

“We’re excited about the move downtown and the centralized location. We’ve had a good response from downtown.”

Among the confirmed food vendors from outside of Saskatoon are: FTW: Kyu Grill (Winnipeg), The Frying Deutschmann (Regina), Biggar Bites (Biggar), Chow Queen (Prince Albert), Cucinani Flora (Biggar)

New local food vendors are: Hunger Cure Restro Bar, Boom Box Chicken, 2 Lemons 1 Cup, The Shawarma Joint, Chonky Dog, Cake & Black Pepper Pizza.

Returning vendors are: Hawaiian Shaved Ice, Prairie Poppins, Ole Mole, Mama’s Best, Smokes Poutinerie, Edina’s, Rebel Melt, Homestead Ice Cream, Kyu Grill, Chow Queen, Mean Green Ice Cream Machine,

The festival will be located at 4th Avenue North & 23rd Street East.

For more information, please visit: www.foodtruckwaryxe.com

-Cam Hutchinson