20th Birthday Party Review

HPR’s 20th birthday has come and gone. We held three events and a lot of folks of all walks of life popped in to be part of the celebration. Above all else, times like that remind us how fortunate we truly are.

Our karaoke party at the Plains Art Museum Thursday night was the kick-off event. We had an amazing layout of food provided by Josie’s Corner. Jon Offutt signed glass paperweights made their debut that night. By Request DJ did a good job setting the tone with music and coaxing people to sing. However, we admit in retrospect that people are more likely to want to sing karaoke if they’ve had a few hours of partying. That said, there were some terrific moments as people took the stage.

We truly love having events at the Plains Art Museum. It is a long standing tradition to gather our people at the Plains, whether for five-year birthday celebrations or annual Best of the Best awards nights. The space is magical and the staff there professional, classy and on top of things.

Our birthday party then transformed dramatically when Saturday rolled around. Though we learned some things along the way about what to do and what not to do when putting on a street dance, it ended up coming off more than OK. The weather warmed up a tad by Saturday so that helped. The ripple effects from ESPN’s Gameday earlier certainly had an impact on the night in that many people were home napping early in the evening after kicking it hard that morning.

The Sons of Norway provided the beer and liquor service for our block party. We frankly could not have better neighbors than them. The stage, sound and lights set up by Kent Kolstad and his Livewire media Strategy Group exceeded our expectations. Luchadores and Gigi's Ice Lollies fed a whole bunch of people in the front yard of HPR’s brownstone.

Wild Hands took the stage at 7 o’clock Saturday. Many in the audience had never heard this band from Minot, N.D. before. They won the crowd over to say the least. Our publisher, Raul, believes Wild Hands is perhaps the best band in the entire state. He’s maybe onto something.

Following them was the best original band in Fargo-Moorhead as attested to in HPR’s Best of the Best contest earlier this year. D Mills and the Thrills. Each member of that band is as good as good gets, musically, and boy do they put on a show.

Nels Hunstad from Old Lutheran and First Avenue Productions in Moorhead printed a whole bunch of t-shirts with the HPR 20th birthday cake featured on front. Dozens of folks went home with them. Jon Offutt glass paperweights were a hit. That is the fourth time Jonny Offutt made glass mementos for HPR five-year commemorations. There are a few out there who have all four of them from the 5th, 10th, 15th and now 20th birthdays. Many know but we’ll repeat for those who don’t that Jon Offutt has won HPR’s Best Artist category practically every year since the contest started.

As for what was the absolute highlight of the HPR celebration this year was what followed at the Aquarium Saturday night. It was beyond words, frankly, but we will try doing justice to it here.

Long story short, HPR’s own Diane Miller and members of O’fosho did Rage Against the Machine’s “Battle of Los Angeles” and the brought the house down. Literally, they kicked ass. The mosh action was more than lively. The crowd was electric to say the least. We saw a side of Diane Miller that will forever be embedded on our psyches. Since then, so you know, we’ve modified her contract here at HPR so as to assure that when she’s famous she’ll never forget us ‘little people’ from the Little Newspaper That Could when she’s jet setting around the world and signing autographs. Seriously.

Besides a shout out to all who participated or who came the distance to celebrate with us (especially Len Schmid, one of HPR’s founders who traveled from the Twin Cities to be here), we want to give big thank you to others who made it all possible:

OUR SPONSORS: Nikki Ness and everyone at Bernie’s Wine & Liquors; Keith Bergseth and everyone over at Bergseth Bros.; Mike Metzger and the Republic Family; and the entire crew of The Fargo Brewing Co.

OUR PARTNERS: Patty Hagen and everyone at the Sons of Norway; Penny Solum, Nichole and everyone at the Plains Art Museum; Jonny Offutt of the House of Mulciber; Nels Hunstad at First Ave. Productions in Moorhead; Randy and Tracy Walvatne of Josie’s Corner; The Fargo Police Dept.; Fargo Public Works Dept.; Gigi’s Lollies; Luchadores; Bert, Klaus and everyone at the Aquarium; Kent Kolstad and the gang at Livewire; Wild Hands; O’fosho; D Mills & the Thrills; and KNDS Radio.