Minneapolis is scheduled to host Red Bull Flugtag on Saturday, Sept. 26, at Bohemian Flats Park.
The event location is 2150 W River Pkwy in Minneapolis, according to Meet Minneapolis. The tourism site describes the spectacle at Bohemian Flats Park as a chance to watch amateur builders chase a dream that rarely ends well: staying airborne.
Homemade Aircraft, Real Consequences
Teams compete with homemade aircraft and a pilot, according to Meet Minneapolis. Many attempts end in the water rather than sustained flight, the tourism site notes.
That format hasn't changed much over the years. When the competition last visited the Twin Cities in 2019, teams designed, built and piloted homemade flying machines off a 30-foot-high platform and tried to glide the farthest before plunging into the Mississippi River, the Star Tribune reported at the time. Judges scored competitors. Each team competed with a homemade flying machine and a pilot.
A Legacy on the Mississippi
The Twin Cities hosted a Flugtag competition in 2019.
That 2019 competition drew a massive crowd, with tens of thousands of spectators lining both sides of the river to watch the chaos unfold, per Twin Cities.com. The event also carried a real price tag: the city of St. Paul and Visit St. Paul put $225,000 toward Flugtag that year, according to the outlet, though some of that money returned to the city through sponsor payments for street closures and other services.
Team counts from that 2019 event vary depending on the source. Twin Cities.com reported that all 38 teams competing that year ended up in the Mississippi River, with 31 of those teams hailing from Minnesota and 23 from the Twin Cities specifically. The Star Tribune, however, reported that 40 teams were scheduled to participate, including 25 from the Twin Cities and seven from greater Minnesota.
Spoonbridge Sculpture Took the Crown
Distance wasn't exactly a strong suit for anyone that day. A Minneapolis team piloting a re-creation of the Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture won the 2019 competition with a flight of just 54 feet, according to Twin Cities.com. Ironically, the second-place finisher actually flew farther: St. Paul's “Ferris Bueller's Take Off” traveled 63 feet but settled for the runner-up spot after judges factored in creativity and showmanship alongside distance.
Federal records document coordination ahead of the 2019 competition: Red Bull North America notified the Coast Guard on May 15 that year that it would hold a Flugtag event on the Upper Mississippi, according to a notice published in the Federal Register.
The Riverfront Setting
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board says Bohemian Flats became a park in the 1980s as West River Parkway was extended. The board lists biking and walking paths, a pay parking lot, picnic area and restroom facility among the park’s amenities; those general listings do not establish event-day access or parking availability, according to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. A separate precedent—not a notice for the 2026 Flugtag—came in 2016, when the Coast Guard established a one-hour safety zone for a fireworks display on the Upper Mississippi River in Minneapolis, according to the Federal Register. That past action does not establish what river-safety arrangements will apply to this event.
Details on this year's specific teams, judging logistics and crowd expectations for the Sept. 26 event in Minneapolis have not yet been released. What's clear is that Bohemian Flats Park is about to host another round of homemade contraptions built by hopeful pilots — most of whom, if history is any guide, will end up soaked rather than soaring.
