Other stories in "Festivals"

• Great grape stomps
  At harvest festivals, compete with your feet.
• Great fall festivals
  Here are the best of the fests in 2008.
• Celebrating roots
  No matter where you're from, there's a festival for you.
• Agate stampede
  Every year, Moose Lake introduces budding rockhounds to the thrill of the hunt.
• Tulip Time in Pella
  In central Iowa, the Dutch celebrate colorful origins.
• A summer's worth of celebrations
  Here are the best of the fests in 2008.
• Cozying up to the Cornish
  A fall festival honors the miners who left their mark on Mineral Point.
• Big apples
  In Bayfield, a fall festival grows to jumbo proportions.
• Waking the dragon
  A sport inspired by ancient Chinese legend takes off on local waters.
• Owl aboard
  In southeast Minnesota, a livewire named Alice is the star of a late-winter festival.
• Polish for a day
  At Milwaukee's lakefront festivals, visitors get a big helping of another culture.
• Nordic nirvana
  Every July, Decorah puts on one of the best fests in the Midwest.
• Dancing on the Yellow Medicine
  In history-filled river valley, a wacipi celebrates Dakota culture.
• Home of the eelpout
  In February, a Minnesota fishing town lets loose.
• Jolly Cedarburg
  In southeastern Wisconsin, a historic village has perfected the art of the party.
• Everyone loves a parade
  When a town marches, its entire history unrolls before your eyes.
• Critter races
  In Minnesota resort towns, creatures great and small run for the money.

A feast of festivals

At small-town shindigs, get your fill of strawberries and sauerkraut, kolacky and sweet corn.

As soon as rhubarb leaves unfurl and morels pop out of the ground, towns across the region begin their salutes to the local specialty.

It starts with Norwegian lefse on Syttende Mai and continues to Finnish pasties, German pretzels, Czech kolacky, Danish pancakes and American pie. There will be music and parades and all kinds of goofy contests — rhubarb-stalk throwing in Lanesboro, the rutabaga shot put in Calumet — but mostly, there will be a lot to eat.

If you’ve ever said, “I could eat a hundred of those!’’ you'll get your chance this summer. Here are some of the premier places to pig out in 2008.

May 17, Lefse Dagen in Starbuck, Minn. Lefse, a Scandinavian tortilla made with potatoes, cream and butter, is celebrated in this central Minnesota town, which holds the record for the world's largest lefse (it was 70 pounds). There's Scandinavian food plus music, crafts and lefse-making demonstrations. 320-239-4220, www.starbuckmn.org.

May 17-18, Morel Mushroom Festival in Muscoda, Wis. This town along the Wisconsin River sells the mushrooms and holds fireworks, a flea market and a  2 p.m. Sunday parade. 608-739-3182, www.muscoda.com.

May 16-18, Asparagus Festival in Empire, Mich. On the edge of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, this festival features asparagus fortune-telling, cook-off and parade, 231-326-5922, www.empirechamber.com.

May 23-26, World's Largest Brat Fest, Madison, Wis. 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 (last year, 157,655 were consumed). There are also carnival rides and a Cut the Mustard high-school band competition. Admission is free. Outside the Alliant Energy Center, 608-345-2220, www.bratfest.com.

May 23-26, Chocolate Festival in Burlington, Wis. This big festival in southeast Wisconsin features a battle of the chefs, a geocache treasure hunt, Project Yum-way candy-wrapper design contest and chocolate chase, plus a crafts fair, carnival and Wild West show. 262-763-3300, www.chocolatefest.com.

June 7-8, Rhubarb Festival in Lanesboro, Minn. The festival in this southeast Minnesota hamlet is young but already beloved. There’s a Rhubarb Olympics, featuring the Rhubarb Stalk Throw and Green Eggs and Rhubarb, and a Rhubarb Rant Speakers Corner for opinionated folks. The Rhubarb Sisters will entertain. 800-944-2670 www.rhubarbfestival.org.

June 13-15, Strawberry Days in Strawberry Point, Iowa. This town in northeast Iowa is all about strawberries and has a 15-foot-high fiberglass berry to prove it. Festivities on Saturday include the longest strawberry shortcake, eating contests and a parade. 563-933-4400, www.strawberrypt.com

June 27-28, PastyFest in Calumet, Mich. The humble miner's lunch — meat and rutabagas in a pocket of piecrust — has inspired this Keweenaw Peninsula festival, which includes a PastyWalk,  PastyParade, PastyPoetry contest and, of course, a PastyCook-Off. Toivo the walking and talking pasty will appear, and there will be games  — the PastyPull, Rutabaga Shotput, Onion Pass and Egg Toss. Free pasties for the first 500 people. 906-337-6246, www.mainstreetcalumet.com.

June 27-29, Sauerkraut Days in Henderson, Minn. This town in the Minnesota River Valley is only an hour or so southwest of the Twin Cities. There’s a kiddie parade,  tractor-ride parade and grand parade, plus  fire-department water fights and a kraut-eating contest. 507-248-3234, www.henderson-mn.com/sauerkraut.

June 27-28, Pretzel City Festival in Freeport, Ill. This town in northern Illinois, just across the border from Wisconsin cheese country, has been famous for pretzels since the Billerbeck Bakery started making them in 1869; even the town's high-school athletes are known as the Pretzels. There's an adult tricycle race, children's parade and tractor pull and puzzle-building and pretzel-recipe contests. 815-232-2121, pretzelcityusa.org.

June 28-29, Strawberry Festival in Cedarburg, Wis. The festival in this idyllic town of 11,000, half an hour north of Milwaukee, draws a throng of 40,000 people to historic Washington Avenue. Don’t miss the freshly grilled strawberry brats from Hoffmann’s Meat Market, the strawberry tarts from GrandDad Bakery and the strawberry wine from Cedar Creek Winery. There are sundae- and pie-eating and berry bob contests, a pet fashion show and a fine arts and crafts fair. 800-237-2874, www.cedarburg.org.

July 11-13, Wild Rice Festival in Deer River, Minn. Amid Chippewa National Forest north of Grand Rapids, this town celebrates the Ojibwe staple with a powwow, parade, kiddie tractor pull and fireworks, www.deerriver.org.

July 11-13, Catfish Days in Trempealeau, Wis. In this outdoorsy Mississippi River town, there's a bike race and tour, egg toss, music, fireworks, fishing tournament, Sunday parade and, of course, plenty of catfish. 608-534-6335, www.trempealeau.net.

July 25-27, Kolacky Days in Montgomery, Minn. This southern Minnesota town, settled by Czech immigrants, calls itself the Kolacky Capital of the World. That’s quite a claim, but the town will try to live up to it by producing thousands of the fruit-filled pastries for its annual festivities, which will include a Tour de Bun Bike Classic Saturday and a Bun Run Sunday. The Domaci Czech Dancers will perform Saturday and the St. Paul Czech Dancers on Sunday. The Grand Day Parade is  Sunday, and of course, there’s a kolacky-eating contest. It’s just south of New Prague. 507-364-5577, www.montgomerymn.org.

July 26, Pie Extravaganza at Forest History Center in Grand Rapids, Minn. Education program about food and pie as a part of American culture, differences in historic and modern recipes and baking techniques, and taste testing. $7 adults, $4 children.  www.mnhs.org.

July 25-27, Aebleskiver Days in Tyler, Minn. The festival in this southwest Minnesota town features the ball-shaped Danish pancake. 507-247-3905, www.aebleskiverdays.com.

July 25-27, Blueberry Festival in Lake George, Minn. This village just outside Itasca State Park celebrates with blueberry pancakes, a pie sale and a parade. 218-266-2995, lakegeorgeminn.com.

July 31-Aug. 2, Brat Days in Sheboygan, Wis. This festival in the home of the brat features every kind of sausage plus music, a carnival and big parade. 920-912-6172, www.bratdays.org.

Aug. 1, Pie Day in Braham, Minn. In the 1930s, this tiny town north of Cambridge became a pie stop for Twin Cities folks driving to cabins up north. It was named Homemade Pie Capital of Minnesota by Gov. Rudy Perpich in 1990, the year it started its now-famous Pie Day. This year, events include the first Pie in Your Eye or Pie in the Sky Trivia Contest, in which losers get a you-know-what in the face. There’s also a medallion hunt, performances of the Pie-Alluia Chorus, a pie auction and pie-eating and -baking contests. 320-396-4956, www.pieday.com.

Aug. 2, Cookie Daze in Ripon, Wis. The birthplace of the Republic Party also is home of Rippin' Good Cookies and calls itself Cookie Town USA. Cookie Monster appears at the festival, which also features cookie bingo and decorating. 920-748-6764, www.ripon-wi.com.

Aug. 9, Burger Fest in Seymour, Wis. Last year, the Wisconsin Legislature declared this small town west of Green Bay the Original Home of the Hamburger, based on a local 15-year-old who put ground-beef patties in a bun, called them hamburgers and sold them at the Seymour Fair in 1885. The town celebrates with a festival and hot-air balloon rally, featuring a hamburger-press strength contest, a ketchup slide competition, a burger-eating contest and the World’s Largest Hamburger Parade at 11 a.m. Saturday. 920-833-6688, www.homeofthehamburger.org.

Aug. 15-17, Corn on the Cob Days in Plainview, Minn. This town, amid bluff country south of Lake Pepin, celebrates the local product with a huge free corn feed and parade. The big day is Sunday, when eight to 10 tons of corn cobs are picked, transported by forklift and steam-cooked in their husks at 212 degrees for about 45 minutes. The public gets to dig in from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., or until the corn is gone. There's a parade at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. 507-534-2229, www.corncobdays.com.

Aug. 15-17, Wild Blueberry Festival in Paradise, Mich. This town on the east end of the Upper Peninsula is best known as the home of the Whitefish Point Shipwreck Museum, but in August it puts on its "blue clothes'' and celebrates the berry harvest. 906-492-3219.

Aug. 16, Minnesota Garlic Festival in Howard Lake, Minn. There will be old-fashioned picnic games, music and demonstrations by celebrity chefs at this festival just west of Minneapolis, 320-543-3394.

Aug. 22-23, Potato Days in Barnesville, Minn. This goofy festival in central Minnesota features mashed-potato sculpting, a golden potato hunt, potato car races, a Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head contest, peeling and eating contests and a 5:30 p.m. Saturday parade. 800-525-4901, www.potatodays.com.

Aug. 22-23, Mackinac Island Fudge Festival, Mackinac Island, Mich. There are 17 fudge shops on this little island, so they need plenty of people to eat it. Besides fudge, there will be hiking and biking tours, music, dance and extreme kite flying. Five Golden Tickets, good for vacations on the island, will be placed in boxes of fudge for sale. 800-454-5227, www.mackinacislandfudgefestival.org.

Aug. 22-26, Rutabaga Festival in Cumberland, Wis. Root vegetables aren’t very glamorous, but this town in western Wisconsin has celebrated them for 75 years. There’s no rutabaga feed, but there is a hot-pepper eating contest on Saturday and a pancake breakfast and pie and ice-cream social Sunday. The grand parade is  Sunday. 715-822-3378, www.cumberland-wisconsin.com.

Sept. 19-21, Cheese Days in Monroe, Wis. 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. 608-325-7771, www.cheesedays.com.

Sept. 26-28, Cranberry Festival in Warrens, Wis. The bogs in central Wisconsin are scarlet red for this big festival, which features a 1 p.m. Sunday parade. 608-378-4200, www.cranfest.com.

Sept. 27-28, Apple Festival in Gays Mills, Wis. Southwest Wisconsin is beautiful in fall, and the many orchards are a good excuse to visit. This big festival features a 1:30 p.m. Sunday parade. 608-735-4341, www.gaysmills.org.

Oct. 2-5, Apple Fest in Bayfield, Wis. This huge event brings 60,000 people into this tiny village across from the Apostle Islands. There's music, an apple-peeling contest, a Venetian boat parade and a big parade on Sunday. 800-447-4094, www.bayfield.org.

Oct. 4, Apple Affair in Galesville, Wis. Up in the Mississippi River bluffs, above Trempealeau, this bucolic village holds a festival featuring 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. 608-582-2868, www.galesvillewi.com.

Last updated on September 22, 2008