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Other stories in "Festivals"

• So many festivals, so little fall
  When time is short, go power tripping.
• Great fall festivals
  Here are the best of the fests in 2010.
• Great grape stomps
  At harvest festivals, compete with your feet.
• Great summer festivals
  Here are the best of the fests in the Upper Midwest.
• Bash on a bike trail
  Kick up your wheels at a small-town fall festival.
• Toasting Oktoberfest
  Festive tributes to Bavarian tradition put the oompah into fall.
• Jolly Cedarburg
  In southeastern Wisconsin, a historic village has perfected the art of the party.
• Throwing a party
  At these festivals, all kinds of things fly through the air with the greatest of ease.
• Nordic nirvana
  Every July, Decorah puts on one of the best fests in the Midwest.
• Celebrating roots
  No matter where you're from, there's a festival for you.
• Critter races
  In Minnesota resort towns, creatures great and small run for the money.
• Agate stampede
  Every year, Moose Lake introduces budding rockhounds to the thrill of the hunt.
• Home of the eelpout
  In February, a Minnesota fishing town lets loose.
• Syttende Mai in Stoughton
  In May, everyone turns Norwegian in this southern Wisconsin town.
• Birding in spring
  When the birds return, festivals follow.
• Great spring festivals
  It's a good time to indulge in brews, birding and blooms.
• Big apples
  In Bayfield, a fall festival has grown to jumbo proportions.
• Waking the dragon
  A sport inspired by ancient Chinese legend takes off on local waters.
• Great winter festivals
  Enjoy the chilly season with snow sculptures, ice castles, sleigh rides and lots of hot chocolate.
• Great holiday festivals
  In November and December, check out Santa, Scrooge and shopping markets.
• A German Mardi Gras
  At New Ulm's Bock Fest, the good times roll in on a tide of beer.
• Owl aboard
  In southeast Minnesota, a live-wire named Alice is the star of a late-winter festival.
• Tulip Time in Pella
  In central Iowa, the Dutch celebrate colorful origins.
• Polish for a day
  At Milwaukee's lakefront festivals, visitors get a big helping of another culture.
• The coolest days of winter
  Ditch the indoors to watch ski-jumpers, dog-mushers and snow-sculptors.
• Horror around the corner
  Spoiling for a fright? In October, ghouls lurk at historic forts, boats, mills and lighthouses.
• Cozying up to the Cornish
  A fall festival honors the miners who left their mark on Mineral Point.
• Everyone loves a parade
  When a town marches, its entire history unrolls before your eyes.
• Dancing on the Yellow Medicine
  In history-filled river valley, a wacipi celebrates Dakota culture.

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 2010.

And for ethnic festivals, see Celebrating roots. For regular festivals, see Great summer festivals and Great fall festivals. For beer festivals, see Best brew fests.

April 30-May 2, Chocolate Fest in Long Grove, Ill. This village in the northern suburbs of Chicago celebrates spring with chocolate demonstrations and workshops, plus music and children's activities.

May 15-16, Morel Mushroom Festival in Muscoda, Wis. This town along the Wisconsin River sells the mushrooms and holds fireworks, a flea market and a Sunday parade. 608-739-3182.

May 15-16, 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.

May 28-31, 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, 208,765 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.

May 28-31, Chocolate Festival in Burlington, Wis. This big festival in southeast Wisconsin features such events as 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.

June 4-6, Milk Days in Harvard, Ill. 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.

June 4-6, Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival in Little Chute. This Fox Cities festival includes cheese-curd eating, cheese-carving and cheesecake contests and a 10:30 a.m. Saturday cheese parade.

June 5, 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 entertain. 800-944-2670.

June 11-13, 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.

June 16-19, Ice Cream Days in Le Mars, Iowa. This town in northwest Iowa, the home of Blue Bunny ice cream, calls itself the Ice Cream Capital of the World and celebrates with an arts show, a parade at 9 a.m. Saturday and, of course, an ice-cream social.

June 18-19, Strawberry Fest in Waupaca, Wis. The festival in this lakes town west of Appleton has trolley rides, an arts fair, a carnival and a balloon rally.

June 19, Lake Michigan Shore Wine Festival in Bridgman, Mich. Music, food, cooking demonstrations and wine overlooking Weko Beach, near Warren Dunes State Park in the southwest corner of Michigan.

June 25-27, 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.

June 25-26, 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.

June 25-26, 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.

June 26-27, 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. For more, see Jolly Cedarburg.

July 3-10, National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Mich. This town on Lake Michigan calls itself the Cherry Capital of the World and attracts half a million people to events that include many pie-eating and pit-spitting contests and the Cherry Royale Parade at 11:15 a.m. July 10.

July 9-11, 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.

July 9-11, 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.

July 10-18, Raspberry Festival in Hopkins, Minn. This west-Minneapolis suburb calls itself America's Raspberry Capital. There's an Arts Festival July 10-11, Family Day games July 17 and Grande Day parade at 1 p.m. July 18.

July 17, Eastern Iowa Wine Festival in Sherrill, Iowa. This festival on the grounds of the 1856 Black Horse Inn, north of Dubuque, features Iowa wine, food, art and music.

July 23-25, Pierogi Fest in Whiting, Ind. 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.

July 23-25, 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 includes a Tour de Bun Bike Classic, a Bun Run and performances by Czech dancers.

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.

July 23-25, Aebleskiver Days in Tyler, Minn. The festival in this southwest Minnesota town features the ball-shaped Danish pancake. 507-247-3905.

July 23-25, 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.

July 24-25, Blueberry Festival in Iron River, Wis. There are blueberry pie-eating contests and a Sunday parade in this town between Duluth and Ashland.

Aug. 5-7, 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.

Aug. 7, 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.

Aug. 6, 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.

There’s a medallion hunt, performances of the Pie-Alluia Chorus, a pie auction and pie-eating and -baking contests. 320-396-4956.

Aug. 7, Burger Fest in Seymour, Wis. The Wisconsin Legislature has declared this friendly little 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 Saturday. 

Aug. 12-15, National Blueberry Festival in South Haven, Mich. 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.

Aug. 14, Coffee Break Festival in Stoughton, Wis. This Norwegian town south of Madison claims its tobacco sorters started the coffee break tradition, and festival-goers get lots of free hot coffee. There's also a crafts show, car and bike show and music.

Aug. 14, Minnesota Garlic Festival in Hutchinson, Minn. There will be old-fashioned picnic games, kite-flying, music and demonstrations by celebrity chefs.

Aug. 14, Chokecherry Festival in Pequot Lakes, Minn. This Brainerd-area lakes town on the Paul Bunyan State Trail offers pancakes with chokecherry syrup and chokecherry culinary and pit-spitting contests, plus a water-balloon fight and blindfolded tractor-driving challenge.

Aug. 19-22, Sweet Corn Festival in Sun Prairie, Wis. A parade at 6:30 p.m. Thursday kicks off this festival just north of Madison, during which more than 70 tons of sweet corn are served.

Aug. 20-22, Pepper Festival in North Hudson, Wis. This town on the St. Croix River celebrates its Italian heritage with spaghetti- and pepper-eating contests, a pepper-cooking contest, a carnival and Saturday parade. 800-657-6775.

Aug. 20-21, 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. 

Aug. 20-22, 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. 21, Watermelon Day in Vining, Minn. This tiny town in western Minnesota is known for its collection of unusual scrap-metal sculptures and, in August, for free watermelon. There's a craft fair, petting zoo and parade. For more, see Otter trail country.

Aug. 22, 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. 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. The parade is at 1:30 p.m.

Aug. 25-29, Rutabaga Festival in Cumberland, Wis. Root vegetables aren’t very glamorous, but this town in western Wisconsin has celebrated them for 76 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. 

Aug. 27-28, Potato Days in Barnesville, Minn. This goofy festival in central Minnesota features mashed-potato wrestling, sculpting and eating plus potato car races, a peeling contest and a Saturday parade. 

Sept. 10-11, Apple Dumpling Days in Elroy, Wis. This bicycle-trail hub in southwest Wisconsin features a half marathon, Dumpling Dash, fun run and plenty of pastry.

Sept. 11, Watermelon Festival in Pardeeville, Wis. The festival in this town just east of Portage features spitting, speed-eating and carving contests, plus games and an art and farmers market.

Sept. 15-18, Pumpkin Festival in Morton, Ill. 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.

Sept. 17-19, 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.

Sept. 18-19, Vintage Illinois wine festival in Matthiessen State Park. This festival in northwest Illinois features live music and wine-tasting from 27 Illinois vineyards.

Sept. 24-26, Cranberry Festival in Warrens, Wis. The bogs in central Wisconsin are scarlet red for this big festival, which features a Sunday parade. 

Sept. 24-25, Beef-A-Rama in Minocqua, Wis. There's a Rump Roast Run, beef-eating contest and Parade of Beef on Saturday.

Sept. 25-26, 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 Sunday parade. 

Oct. 1-3, 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. For more, see Big apples.

Oct. 1-2, 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. 

Oct. 9, Turkey Testicle Festival in Byron, Ill. The slogan of the longtime festival in this town on the Rock River near Rockford is "come have a ball." Seems turkeys are castrated in early fall so they'll be big and juicy for Thanksgiving . . . these early leftovers are deep-fried, and proceeds go to charity.

Oct. 27-31, Pumpkin Festival in Sycamore, Ill. In this town between Rockford and DeKalb, there will be a pie-eating contest, carnival, decorated pumpkins and a parade at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Last updated on September 1, 2010