Burger Wars to be staged in downtown Fort Frances

Spatulas and patties will be madly flipping tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 12) in downtown Fort Frances.

The first-ever Burger Wars Street Festival will bring five food trucks to Scott Street seeking the title of best burger.

One of the organizers, Angela Halverson, says they are happy with the response.

“We’ve had a really excellent response from the community as far as the hype that’s going on about Burger Wars,” says Halverson.

“It’s our first year. We had some presale tickets that went out to the community, and we are so lucky to know that all of the presale tickets have been sold.”

Tickets, costing $25, will still be available on Friday when the event opens at 10 a.m.

The tickets give purchasers the chance to taste a burger from each of the food trucks and cast a vote for best burger and best sauces.

Taking part from Fort Frances will be Talk on the Street Eatery and the Zambroni, the well-known Zamboni that has been approved as a food truck by the health unit.

They will compete against Gropp’s Country Catering from Kenora, TNT Treats out of Red Lake, and Mom’s Kitchen hailing from Dryden.

As the burger wars take place, there will be other things taking place, including participation from 23 local vendors, promoting their wares and downtown businesses holding sidewalk sales and other activities.

“We’ve got the vendors set up. We have got the Early Iron Vintage Cars coming. They’re going to do a display. We have live music happening all day. In the morning, it will be our DJ. He will be doing music in the square.”

“Around 5 o’clock, we’re going to have a live band that will be playing for the rest of the evening, and it’s going to be Thinking of Pinky.

A kids’ activity zone will be set up at the United Native Friendship Centre with bouncy castles and other activities for young people of all ages.

The Northwestern Health Unit, the town of Fort Frances, the Fort Frances Museum and the District of Rainy River Services Board will also be offering kids’ activities.

The Kiwanis Club will stage a scavenger hunt in Rainy Lake Square.

All of the other activities are free to enjoy.

Proceeds from the sale of the burger tickets will go to the Fort Frances Community Chest, which helps area residents and their families who travel out of town for medical purposes.

Halverson says they are also looking forward to next year’s festival being even bigger.

“We’ve had a really great response from the community and businesses in the area. We are hoping to make this an annual event, and every year we hope to build on it.”

The festival gets underway at 10 a.m. on Friday, with the burgers being served at 11 a.m.

Voting will end at 7:30 p.m., and the winners will be declared at around 9 p.m.

The music at Rainy Lake Square will continue at 10 p.m.