There’s no party like a North Dakota party ’cause a North Dakota party ends in a riot. I watched the 1991 documentary that tells the full story of the “Zip to Zap” festival, and the first thing I thought was wow. I couldn’t organize a get-together if my life depended on it, but in May 1969, Chuck Stroup was a North Dakota student just like me who threw the party to end all parties. He was just like me in that he didn’t have the money to head down to Fort Lauredale for spring break, so he did the best he could do and thought, since he couldn’t go very far, why not bring the spring break to his town? In North Dakota. Good old, freezing North Dakota.
The plan? To get his classmates to stay in town by putting an ad in the school newspaper that simply read: “The Zip to Zap Grand Festival of Love.” This helped hype up a small sleepy town in the middle of nowhere with the funkiest name ever: Zap. He would hold a party there for anyone who showed up, without actually promising anything, at least not what would happen next… Except that that same paper would later promise in a separate article “a full program of orgies, brawls, freakouts and arrests is being planned.” Are you ready to party?
Everyone was psyched. Even the locals.
Things got quickly out of hand for Stroup. The Associated Press even picked up the story, and after that, it was so on. Zap became an actual thing. Everyone had to go there. So, students from all over the Midwest were expected to flock to Zap. The locals did what they had to do and prepared for their own North Dakotan version of Coachella, so they stockpiled all of the essentials: beer and more beer. And some burgers, too.
And if you’re wondering, “wait, but did they think this through?,” you would be completely right to ask that question. Google Zap’s current population, and you’ll see it has an estimated 250 inhabitants (as if they needed an estimate). So, imagine what it must have been like in 1969. Temperatures fall below freezing during the spring too, and also, tavern population: 2.
Okay, now add two to three thousand’s worth of horny, rowdy college students who down all the beer and food within the first day, and you got yourself your very own winter Fyre Festival.
So far, we have 3000 students, no food, no beer, and no place to keep warm. And did I mention the beer shortage? Without much to do about the cold, they proceeded to tear a building down and set it on fire, (because that’s what happens when you’re cold and there’s no place to hide) thereby transforming the whole thing into a Burning Man in the middle of Main Street. And then, the entire town became a toilet where everyone urinated, vomited, or did whatever they needed to do wherever natured called.
The mayor of Zap did what any of us do when a total party crasher comes into your home, vomits on your plants, flirts with your SO, and starts punching people and breaking stuff all over the place: he politely asked the students to leave. Most of them left, but apparently, a significant minority stayed behind to raise hell.
They began stoning bars, followed by businesses, and finally, any building that got in their way. The damages were so bad that buildings had to be demolished later on.
The local police force (which I’m assuming consisted of a single cop) was naturally outnumbered and rendered powerless. This is the only riot in North Dakota’s history, and it all happened over a lame festival. That’s when Zap’s mayor called in the National Guard to call it a night party. And just like that, it was done.
Bear in mind that this happened in May 1969, a full month before Woodstock, which goes show how ready kids were to go crazy, even in the middle of nowhere. Next time, though, bring enough booze.
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