Monster trucks are coming to St. Catharines in a type of show Canadians have never seen before with the Monster Trucks All Out Northern Lights Party.
In 1983, Bob Chandler brought his souped-up Ford F-250, dubbed Bigfoot 2, in front of 68,000 people and drove it over the roof of an old car, smashing it to pieces. The crowd’s reaction, with thousands rushing onto the stadium floor to see the vehicle up close, is a testament to the popularity of monster trucks.
Zach Helfand explained in an article from The New Yorker how Chandler enjoyed off-roading anywhere he could. As he conquered more terrain, his truck – Bigfoot the first – grew larger, gaining the tires of a fertilizer spreader. When questioned by his wife over why he had such enormous tires, his response was simply, “Because I can.”
Perhaps the obsession with monster trucks comes from their immense size – Helfand points out how humans have always been obsessed with obscenely large things, like the pyramids or Costco – and the human-sized tires of monster trucks, required to be five feet and six inches tall, certainly fit the description.
Perhaps this popularity instead comes from the seemingly impossible, death-defying stunts that monster trucks are able to perform, such as “launching vehicles that are about the same size and weight as an African bush elephant as high into the air as possible.”
Helfand described seeing a monster truck backflip hundreds of feet in the air as “the experience of seeing something amazing and slightly ridiculous, something you’d have never thought of yourself, like a dog juggling knives.”
Whatever the case may be, monster trucks bring thrills and entertainment wherever they go, and St. Catharines locals will get the chance to see such thrills in person when The Monster Trucks All Out Tour comes to the Meridian Centre on May 11th.
All new to the motor show is the Northern Lights Party, an “epic performance of lights, music and motorsports action.”
The event will feature three Canadian trucks: Bucking Bronco, a custom Ford F-150 owned by Ontarian Kevin Lubsen; Canadian Crusher, a Ford monster truck that only debuted in 2022, also owned by Lubsen; and Outfoxed, a truck with the likeness of a fox that was once the California-based truck, The Patriot.
Tickets, available via Ticketmaster, range from $30 to $75 not including fees, but two add-ons can be purchased: one lets participants meet the drivers and see the trucks in the Pit Party, and the other gives them the chance to ride in the bed of a real monster truck.
The Monster Trucks All Out Tour promises to be an exhilarating event of epic proportions, giving St. Catharines residents the chance to witness giant vehicles racing, smashing stuff and flipping in the air.