Flugtag means “Flight Day,” but on Saturday, it could also have been Schwimmtag or “Swim Day” in St. Paul because all 38 teams in the Red Bull event ended up in the Mississippi River.
The Flugtag competition, where contestants hoped to “fly” their themed contraptions the furthest off a barge parked at Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul, was first held at Harriet Island in 2010.
No world records were set this time, unlike nine years ago when a crew from Inver Grove Heights glided past the furthest buoy at 207 feet. The current world-record flight is 258 feet and was set in 2013 in Long Beach, Calif., by “The Chicken Whisperers.” Saturday’s crews didn’t even break the 100-foot mark.
A team from Minneapolis in a re-creation of the Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture finished in first place at only 54 feet, but made up for it in creativity points. They came in second in 2010 and were last in line on the barge Saturday.
“We’ve waited nine years to do this again,” said Carl Romstad, pilot of “Spooner’s Revenge.” “We never had a doubt that they were saving the best for last. Winning was the cherry on top of a great day here in St. Paul.”
Second-place winner “Ferris Bueller’s Take Off” from St. Paul actually went further, to 63 feet, but didn’t beat Spooner’s overall. This team had only one guy from St. Paul. The rest were from Ottawa, Canada, traveling nearly 19 hours to participate.
The lack of broken records didn’t matter to the tens of thousands of spectators who lined both sides of the river at Harriet Island and watched from boats under gray skies.
“I just like to come for the party,” said Tim Burns of Hugo, who was wearing his T-shirt from the 2010 event which reads “Defying the laws of gravity and sanity.”
It’s a good description of the spectacle that is Flugtag.
Of the 38 teams, 31 were from Minnesota. Of those, 23 were from the Twin Cities. Seven teams were from out of state, driving in from North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois and Canada.
The teams spent months and money building a contraption that they pushed 35 feet along the barge hoping that it would glide, but most simply toppled over the edge.
It’s a one-time shot. The crafts are destroyed on impact and handily fished out by attending boaters who drag it to a waiting garbage scow.
The teams know this, so they go full throttle for style points.
“We just wanted to keep it simple; keep it funny,” said Henry Brown, who was dressed as a salt shaker. “We want to make the people laugh.”
The people laughed and sometimes sucked their breath as some, like when Brown’s Juicy Lucy craft, went straight over, dunking its driver, Charlie Ott of St. Paul, who was dressed as a pickle. Or when Yaba Daba Doo’s pterodactyl wings blew off before leaving the barge. Or when the Kamikaze Kates’ craft left without its pilot.
Of the contestants, there were Klondike Kates (renamed Kamikaze Kates), a giant mosquito, a Sasquatch, a giant s’more, a dinosaur, the Juicy Lucy burger and even a “Game of Thrones” team with one member dressed as the Starbucks cup that accidentally got in one of the show’s episodes.
Sadie Laidlaw and Randy Seaman saw the event online and drove in from Belle Plaine, Minn. They, too, came for the party.
“It’s fun,” Laidlaw said. “The Red Bull slushies are amazing.”
St. Paul police did not have a crowd estimate for the event, which was free, but had said that Flugtag, combined with five other events, would likely draw 200,000 people to the city Saturday.
The city of St. Paul collaborated with Visit St. Paul, the city’s convention and tourism bureau, to put $225,000 toward Flugtag, some of which comes back to the city as sponsor Red Bull pays for street closures and other services. Other sponsors were BFGoodrich Discount Tire, Holiday Stationstores and Cub Foods.
