10th Annual Loop the Lake Festival Ready to Kick Off in Bemidji

The 10th annual Loop the Lake Festival is about to take place on Saturday. The 17-mile bike ride around Lake Bemidji will be full of activities for all to enjoy.

Loop the Lake is a non-competitive day of fun including free food and drinks, different rest stops and activities, live music, and more. The event means a lot to the community.

“They like family activities, and it also means that we have great sponsors and great volunteers,” stated Loop the Lake Planning Committee Volunteer Mur Gilman. “The route has rest stops along the way and two major ones out on the route, and that’s at Ruttger’s and Lake Bemidji State Park, where there’s live music and fresh food.”

The festival is run solely by volunteers. According to the Planning Committee, over 80% of the volunteers this year have been a part of the event in the past.

“I think [they] come back year after year because they work at a particular rest stop, and they get to know the people there, and they all have fun, so they look forward to having that day together,” said Gilman. “Some people who volunteer, they they feel like, ‘Oh, I’m a part of this.’ And even though they’re not riding, they’re really part of the event.”

Because the whole purpose of Loop the Lake is to showcase the beautiful bike trails around Lake Bemidji and to encourage people to get fresh air and exercise in nature, the festival tries to be as waste free as possible.

“We try to be very sustainable with our our usage of paper and we really want participants to come with a water bottle,” explained Loop the Lake Planning Committee Volunteer Donna Palivec. “We will provide the water in coolers, but we will not provide paper cups because that is something we want to try to get beyond.”

And the festival is so much more than a bike ride – it’s a whole family event.

“There’s really some fun things for kids. So for instance, we have this year for the first time our own start arch and finish arch, and they’re bright blue and green,” added Palivec. “It looks like we’re going to have [Bemidji State University mascot] Bucky the Beaver at the start, and we also will have Smokey the Bear at Lake Bemidji State Park. It’s really been just kind of an all-inclusive event.”

The biking will begin at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, June 15 at the South Shore Beach on Lake Bemidji.