3rd Annual Babe’s Burnout Brings More Than 7,000 Car Enthusiasts to Bemidji

The third annual Babe’s Burnout Car Show took place this past Saturday in the Sanford Center parking lot in Bemidji, where more than 100 cars were shown off to thousands of attendees.

Every year the show has grown, and this year’s was the biggest yet. The Bemidji community saw all different makes and models of cars and trucks from the early 1900s all the way up to 2025. Live music and different food vendors also made their way to the Sanford Center to provide people with a whole afternoon full of activities.

The biggest event of the day, and the car show’s namesake, the burnout pit, filled the area with smoke. Although that’s not normally thought of as an appealing fragrance, the smell of burnt rubber brought in more than 7,000 people throughout the day.

“Being here in Bemidji, I’m brand new. I’m absolutely loving the community,” said first-year attendee Robert Ferguson. “Everyone here wants to talk, they’re friendly, they’re very nice and they’re very energetic. There’s a lot of people that are just having fun.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of car enthusiasts and things like that,” he continued. “But what’s really cool is watching the the younger community come out. There’s just a ton of cars, there’s so much more here than I thought there would be. It’s like being welcomed in the community, you know? It’s really cool.”

Half of the proceeds from this year’s event were donated to the Bemidji United Way’s Disaster Relief Fund for the June 21st storm, as were all of the proceeds from the cornhole tournament that also took place that day.