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Restaurant Week in Chicago. Time to pack on the calories: More than 160 restaurants offer three-course prix-fixe menus for $22 at lunch and $32 at dinner. Feb. 19-28.
The public can sample cheeses from all over the world and watch judges at work at this free event in Monona Terrace.
A tasting of cheese and microbrews at the Brat Stop, $25-$30.
This village in the northern suburbs of Chicago celebrates spring with chocolate demonstrations and workshops, plus music and children's activities.
It's a music festival featuring the world's largest touring grill (a Johnsonville semi that can cook 750 brats at a time), the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile and brats; 208,752 were served in 2009. There are also carnival rides and a Cut the Mustard high-school band competition. Admission is free. Outside the Alliant Energy Center.
The festival in this small town just south of Lake Geneva, Wis., is the longest running in the state. There's a milk-drinking contests, milking demonstrations, cow-chip lotto, bed races, hot-air balloon launches and a parade at 1 p.m. Saturday.
This Fox Cities festival includes cheese-curd eating, cheese-carving and cheesecake contests and a 10:30 a.m. Saturday cheese parade.
During this popular event in an old mill town north of Milwaukee, you can get strawberries in everything — brats, wine, slush. For more, see Jolly Cedarburg.
This town on Lake Michigan attracts half a million people to events that include many contests and the Cherry Royale Parade at 11:15 a.m. Sunday.
This suburb of Chicago exalts the plump Eastern European dumplings, filled with cheese, mashed potatoes or sauerkraut, with pierogi eating and tossing contests, a Mr. Pierogi songfest and a Polka Parade at 7 p.m. Friday.
This free harborfront festival features locally produced specialties as well as cooking demonstrations, gardening workshops and music on three stages.
Ride the Heartland State Trail to this tiny "burp in the road'' near Park Rapids, then eat your way down the street. And don't forget to vote (or run) for mayor. Food is served 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
This town on Lake Michigan is sausage central. There's music, a carnival, beer and, of course, a brat-eating contest. The parade is Saturday.
Minnesota's official Pie Capital near Cambridge holds pie-eating contests, a pie trivia contest and performances of the Pie-Alleuia Chorus.
Eat until you're blue in the face during the festival in this Lake Michigan beach town. The big parade is at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
Besides fudge, there will be hiking and biking tours, music, dance and extreme kite flying.
This goofy central-Minnesota festival features mashed-potato sculpting, a golden potato hunt, potato car races, a Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head contest, peeling and eating contests and a Saturday parade.
Sample craft beers at Millstream Brewing Co., Iowa's oldest microbrewery.
There's an arts and crafts show, flower market, music, wine tasting and sampling of food from local restaurants.
This town near Peoria, home of the Libby's pumpkin-packing plant, calls itself the Pumpkin Capital of the World and serves pumpkin ice cream, pancakes and fudge at its festival, which features a 10:30 a.m. Saturday parade.
This festival is held every other year in the capital of cheese country, the home of Swiss Colony and the last Limburger factory. It's one of the biggest and oldest food festivals, a tradition since 1914.
This festival in northwest Illinois features live music and wine-tasting from 25 Illinois vineyards.
At this huge festival in west-central Wisconsin, there'll be marsh tours, contests and more than 1,300 booths selling antiques, produce and arts and crafts. The big parade is at noon Sunday.
It's the 50th annual festival in this southwest Wisconsin village, hit hard by the June floods. There'll be arts and crafts, music and a canoe race Sunday. The big parade is at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
This festival swamps the little village on Lake Superior, but it's still fun. Highlights include Big Top Chautauqua concerts, Pipes & Drums from Thunder Bay, the lighted Venetian boat parade and the grand parade at 2 p.m. Sunday.
There's German music and food at this Amana Colonies village, plus contests that include the Eisenmann, or Iron Man, competition: Teams roll kegs, walk a balance beam with full steins of beer and saw logs. The parade is at 10 a.m. Saturday
In the bluffs above Trempealeau, this festival features a 10-foot apple pie, a hunt for a Silver Apple, a race of floating wooden apples and a bicycle tour with a 20-mile route through apple orchards and hillier 35- and 60-mile routes.
In downtown's East Village, eat at 30 cultural cafes for $5 or less (or taste for $1), shop at the world marketplace or listen to musicians strolling the streets or on stage.
