This was intended to fill a void that would be created with the Taste not running. Instead of creating a whole new festival, we decided to relocate our existing FTW Street Festival and expand on it downtown.” Taste of Saskatchewan was expected to take a break to allow Kiwanis Park to rejuvenate. It was announced on Jan. 9 that Taste of Saskatchewan would return for its 25th year. That was just weeks after FTW applied for a licence to take Taste of Saskatchewan’s dates. Mah declined to speculate on the reason for Taste of Saskatchewan’s sudden decision to return. Taste of Saskatchewan will run from July 14-19, and FTW from July 21-26. “We feel our festival will be a nice option for foodies. The Taste is comprised of booths from brick-and-mortar restaurants, while our festival is comprised mainly of food trucks, food trailers and street food pop-ups. “We feel that although the Taste and FTW are both food festivals, we are actually offering two completely different food experiences for Saskatonians to enjoy.We also recognize the stress that a huge festival can have on a park’s grass and trees. With that in mind, our festival site will be located on the street and not in a park.”

The festival will be held on Fourth Avenue between 22nd Street and 23rd Street. The festival will also include 23rd Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue. “We have met with Brent Penner and Sarah Marchildon of the Downtown Saskatoon BID (DTNYXE) and they are both very excited to have our festival downtown. The DTNYXE will be instrumental in helping to make FTW inclusive to the area businesses. “We are planning to have 40-plus food vendors at our festival, and have already confirmed out-of-town foodtrucks from Prince Albert, Regina and Winnipeg. At our festival, you should be able to see almost every food truck or food trailer that is in operation in Saskatoon and area. We could be Saskatchewan’s largest food festival in terms of food choices being offered.”

Besides the food, the festival offers a wide variety of entertainment options. Among them are cultural dancing, a karaoke championship, professional wrestling, food-related competitions, including hot dog eating, pie eating and flavour taste testing. Mah, who co-organizes the festival with his son David, said crowds of more than 1,000 people came out for the pro wrestling cards last year. This time the grapplers will do nightly shows throughout the festival. An estimated 1,000 people attended the hot-dog eating contest as well. “We are hoping that Saskatoon’s Dan Broberg will be back to defend his 2019 hot dog eating crown against Step Daddy J from Vancouver.” Broberg and Step Daddy J were tied for first place in regulation time, with Broberg winning in a two-minute eat off to decide the winner. It is hoped two-time champ Ken Kwan, who came up a dog or two short in 2019, will be back. “Of course, we will be incorporating some new entertainment and different food challenges; we feel it is important to keep the festival fresh by incorporating different ideas each year,” Mah said.

The Flavour Challenge is a taste testing competition between the food vendors that is judged by a guest panel. This challenge has become a highly competitive, but friendly competition, Mah said. “The food vendors want to claim the title as Foodtruck Wars Flavour Challenge Champion. In 2020, we are hosting a dessert/beverage challenge in addition to a main entrée challenge.”

Ewest Music is returning to sponsor the Karaoke Championship and is guaranteeing a $1,000 first prize. “We couldn’t believe the number of great singers that we attracted to the competition last year,” Mah said. Mah said Prairie Pro Wrestling will be holding six evening shows. “It’s very entertaining old-school wrestling. Crowd interaction is a must.” Mah pointed out that the festival is family, pet and environmentally friendly. “We feel that FTW is Saskatoon’s fastest growing festival, going from 8,000 visitors in our first festival to 30,000 visitors last year. That’s in five short years.”

An important component of the festival is our Zero Waste initiative that was started in 2018. “We are pleased to announce that the Affinity Credit Union is returning as our festival’s title ‘Zero Waste’ sponsor. We are also commissioning the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council (SWRC) to help implement and oversee the zero-waste initiative. “Without the sponsorship and commitment from Affinity CU, our festival Zero Waste initiative would not have achieved the success that we have shown. In 2019, we diverted over 93 per cent of the festival’s waste away from the landfill to recycling and composting efforts. We acknowledge that the City of Saskatoon Environmental Grant was very helpful in aiding us to reach our Zero Waste goals.” Mah said festival has “the full support from our food vendors which we need in order to achieve our waste diversion goals.”

Both Rick and David Mah operate businesses in Riversdale, and will host a Riversdale Street Fair, now that FTW is moving downtown. “Our roots run very deep in Riversdale. My parents operated a restaurant on 20th Street in the 1970s,” Rick Mah said. “We love the Riversdale area, and it was an extremely tough decision to move FTW from Riversdale to downtown. “FTW made many friends with local businesses in the area. We thank Randy Pshebylo of the Riversdale Business Improvement District (RBID) for co-ordinating with us in the past. “In light of this, we have decided to organize a new festival for Riversdale. With help from the RBID, we are pleased to announce that we will be hosting the Riversdale Street Fair on Saturday, July 18. We will have food vendors, market vendors, buskers and more at this celebration.” The Foodtruck Wars Festival Corporation is a non-profit organization that hosts both the Foodtruck Wars Street Festival and the Riversdale Street Fair. “We have also developed an excellent relationship with the Saskatoon & District Lions Clubs in support of their many charitable community efforts,” Rick Mah said.

-Cam Hutchinson