Severe storm tears apart Bemidji Jaycees Water Carnival tent

A severe thunderstorm ripped apart the Bemidji Jaycees’ entertainment tent on June 29, scattering debris and briefly closing a lane on Bemidji Ave just as the city was counting down to its biggest summer festival. The damage landed days before the 82nd annual Water Carnival, scheduled for July 1-5, and forced the Jaycees to confront another round of storm disruption in a community still marked by last year’s disaster.

The Water Carnival is built around the kind of events that draw families, alumni and summer visitors back to Bemidji every year: the Grand Parade, the Color Run, and the Red, White and Boom fireworks show. In the days before the storm, the Jaycees had been pushing traditional carnival staples such as buttons, the medallion hunt and Merriam’s Midway, all part of an event that serves as both a civic tradition and a tourism anchor for the city.

What made the June 29 damage feel especially jarring was the memory of the June 21, 2025 storm that ravaged Bemidji and southern Beltrami County. Beltrami County Emergency Management estimated straight-line winds at 90 to 120 miles per hour after that storm, while the National Weather Service described a roughly ten-mile-wide swath of damage across southern Beltrami County. At the Bemidji Regional Airport, the weather station recorded 106 mph winds at 12:55 a.m., and power outages affected around 50,000 properties.

That 2025 storm left no known deaths in Bemidji, but it tore through neighborhoods, damaged infrastructure and left residents and agencies clearing debris and restoring service for months. The June 29 hit to the Water Carnival tent, coming just over a year later, revived the same practical concerns that follow every severe weather event here: what can be salvaged, what has to be replaced, and whether a public event can stay on schedule when the weather turns violent.

For Bemidji, the storm did more than damage a tent. It interrupted the setup for a signature summer week and put fresh strain on an event that many residents see as part celebration, part economic engine, and part measure of how quickly the community can recover when the next storm rolls through.