Upside-down American flag at Minnesota Somali celebration sparks community chaos: 'Unfathomable'
The city and event organizer have apologized for the incident
By Andrew Mark Miller , Kiera McDonald Fox News
Published July 10, 2026 8:04am EDT
FIRST ON FOX: More details are emerging after an American flag was displayed upside down at a Somali Independence Day event in Minnesota, sparking both outrage and apologies in a situation that has gone viral on social media in recent days.
The St. Cloud Police Department confirmed to Fox News Digital that on July 3 at 5:29 p.m., the department received a call that the U.S. flag was being flown upside down on a city flagpole at the Lake George Park Pavilion during a Somali Independence Day event.
A video from that event, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, showed the flag upside down as event attendees, roughly 500 people at peak times, enjoyed the festivities. The department said the officer "corrected the flag without objection" and that organizers "indicated to City staff that the flag being flown upside down was not intentional."
Despite the claim that the flag was flown upside down by accident, some in the community are skeptical that the error was not noticed by anyone at the event, including the local politicians who were giving speeches and various organizations like the AFL-CIO and the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), who had booths set up.
"I was disgusted by it and then disgusted that it wasn't seen, wasn't caught," St. Cloud City Councilman Scott Brodeen told Fox News Digital, shortly after bringing up the issue in a City Council meeting on Monday.
Brodeen says a Facebook friend messaged him on the evening of July 3, and by the time the councilman got down to the event, the flag had been fixed. He said a St. Cloud police officer told him the department had received complaints and that police made sure the flag was returned to its proper position.
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