You’d be forgiven for assuming that The State Fair of Louisiana is a festival of Cajun and Creole cookery. Yes, a few representatives from the southern bayous will be served, but take note that the fair is held in Shreveport, in the northwest corner of the state, near Arkansas and Texas. Note, as well, that musical performances will include David Allan Coe, if that means anything to you (if not, and you’re interested, Google his name with the word underground). In other words, this fair is more redneck than Cajun. Continue reading
Category: Festivals and Fairs (Page 3 of 7)
Circleville Pumpkin Show, Circleville OH, October 21st through 24th 2015
Begun in 1903 with an ad hoc October display of pumpkins by the mayor of Circleville, Ohio, the Circleville Pumpkin Show has grown into America’s sixth largest festival, with more than 300,000 visitors expected this year. Admission is free, hence their slogan, “The Greatest Free Show on Earth.” The pumpkin delicacies to be found at the Show are legendary, and far predate the modern fad for pumpkin spice everything. Continue reading
They claim that a quarter of the rice eaten in the U.S. comes from Crowley, Louisiana. Who are “they”? Why Crowley, of course! We have neither reason nor desire to question the assertion. Crowley is in Louisiana so, to our ears, it has the ring of truth. Crowley is also host to the annual International Rice Festival (that’s International, mind you, not National!). Rice, an unsexy staple grain, seems an unlikely subject for celebration, which simply serves to piqué our interest in this fest all the more. The party begins this Thursday, October 15th and will run through Sunday, the 18th of October, 2015. Continue reading
Watermelon Day, Rocky Ford CO, August 22nd 2015
G.W. Swink held the first Watermelon Day in Rocky Ford, CO in 1878. He had a particularly bountiful crop of watermelons that year, so he thought he would share the melons with his neighbors. Lately, 50,000 pounds of free watermelons are given away on Watermelon Day, at the famed Watermelon Pile. The Watermelon Pile will be preceded by the Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest. That morning, there’ll also be a watermelon carving contest. Continue reading
The 41st annual Milford Oyster Festival, in Connecticut, begins Friday night (known as Oyster Eve) with four events: Party-All-Eve (live music, oysters, beer), Sail-All-Eve (schooner cruises), Ride-All-Eve (carnival rides), and Stroll-All-Eve (sidewalk sale). Saturday’s Food Courts at Fowler Field and Lisman Landing will offer a wide selection, including foot long hot dogs, lobster rolls, crab cakes, corn on the cob, clam chowder, fried clams, fried oysters, fried shrimp, fresh clams, fried dough, crab rolls, and grinders. Continue reading
Indiana State Fair, Indianapolis IN, August 7th through 23rd 2015
It’s the Year of the Farmer at the 2015 Indiana State Fair, as a different farmer will be spotlighted during each day of the fair. Add in a Wild West Show, acrobats from China, pogo stick stunts, and the great cheese sculpture and you’re certain to have an entertaining and wide-ranging fair day in Indianapolis. The first Indiana State Fair was held in 1852, making it the sixth oldest state fair in the country. Among its many claims to fame: the Beatles actually performed at the fair in 1964! Continue reading
Tontitown Grape Festival, Tontitown AR, August 4th through 8th 2015
The year was 1898. 18 families from Genoa, Italy had arrived in Arkansas over the previous three years, That summer they held a harvest celebration of thanks, an annual tradition which continues to this day as the Tontitown Grape Festival in Tontitown, Arkansas. The 117th edition of that celebration begins tomorrow, Tuesday, August 4th and runs through Saturday the 8th. It’s a grape festival, alright, and there are plenty of grapes to be found, but the festival is perhaps most famous for their spaghetti dinners. Continue reading
Old-Fashioned Corn Roast Festival, Union Mills MD, August 1st 2015
For the 45th consecutive summer, the Union Mills Homestead will be hosting their annual Old-Fashioned Corn Roast Festival. The date is Saturday, August 1st, from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Local corn roasted in the husk over coals is really something special, and your meal ticket gets you all the corn you care to eat! Along with that corn: fried chicken, applesauce, sliced tomatoes, roll and butter, and iced tea or lemonade. Continue reading
Gilroy Garlic Festival, Gilroy CA, July 24th through 26th 2015
Yep, this is the one — the festival with the infamous garlic ice cream. They give the stuff away for free, no less, apparently confident in its limited novelty appeal. In the same way that Hershey, PA takes on the aroma of its famous roasted bean, Gilroy, CA will fill the air with the heady scent of the stinking rose this weekend, July 24th through 26th, as the town hosts the 37th annual Gilroy Garlic Festival. Continue reading
From The Kolacky Capital of the World comes the 81st annual Kolacky Festival in Montgomery, Minnesota! First held in 1929 when … what’s that? What’s a kolacky? We quote the festival website: “A kolacky is a small dinner roll-like pastry which is folded, enclosing filling in the center. The most common fillings include prune, poppyseed, apricot, apple, blueberry and raspberry.” They come from the Czech Republic or, to be more accurate, Bohemia, which is what that region of Europe was called when Montgomery was settled by Czechs in the mid-1800s. It’s been over 150 years and they have not forgotten! Continue reading
Delaware State Fair, Harrington DE, July 23rd through August 1st
Delaware used to hold the first state fair of summer until California jumped ahead of them by two weeks. So what is now the 2nd state fair of the season will begin on Thursday, July 23rd and will continue through Saturday, August 1st. If a Livestock Extravaganza (July 28th), the Dairy Goat Milking Contest (July 29th), harness racing (July 30th), or a Chickin Pickin’ Contest (July 25th) is your kind of fun (it’s ours!), start making plans now. Continue reading
The 68th Grand Lake Buffalo BBQ, held since 1947, this year takes place Saturday and Sunday, July 18th and 19th. On Saturday, the day begins at 7 a.m. with the Rotary pancake breakfast in the park, to be followed by a 5K run. Then, from noon until it runs out, farm-raised buffalo with all the fixin’s will be served at the lakefront. There’ll be entertainment, too: lots of music, beer and spirits, and plenty of activities for kids. Continue reading
Apple Pie Jamboree, Pateros WA, July 17th through 19th 2015
The Apple Pie Jamboree began in 1947 as way to raise money for the local hospital. The festival continued in fits and starts over the years – the next Jamboree was held in 1950 but stopped after the ’57 party. It wasn’t until 1969 that the festivities took hold for good in Pateros. Those early years featured raffles of refrigerators and an 800-pound steer. In a scene foreshadowing a classic episode of a ’70s sitcom, one year live chickens were tossed off the roofs of local buildings! Yes, much has changed over the years but the apple pie remains. Continue reading
Yarmouth Clam Festival, Yarmouth ME, July 17th through 19th 2015
Whole fried clams in crumbs. Fried clam strips. Fried clams in batter. Clam chowder. Clam cakes. Steamed clams. Yep, it’s time once again for that ultimate festival for clam-lovers: the 50th Annual Yarmouth Clam Festival in Maine. Over 100,000 visitors are expected in Yarmouth the weekend of July 17th through 19th. Continue reading
North Dakota State Fair, Minot ND, July 17th through 25th 2015
We love everything about state fairs, from the 4-H exhibits to the butter and cheese sculptures, from the headline country music concerts to the Sweet Adelines, but what really grabs us are the food possibilities. Unfortunately, some fairs treat food as an afterthought, offering nothing but standard carnival fare. The North Dakota State Fair, perhaps surprisingly, is not one of those. Interesting things to eat are front and center in Minot! Continue reading
Porter Peach Festival, Porter OK, July 16th through 18th 2015
Free peaches and ice cream! Do you need any other reason to attend the 49th Porter Peach Festival in Oklahoma? The festival dates are July 16th through 18th. The peaches and cream will be handed out Saturday at 1 p.m. When it comes to peaches, that’s not all: earlier Saturday, contestants will be competing at the Porter Civic Center in the annual peach cooking contests, in the categories of cobblers, desserts, and preserves. And you’ll be able to pick your own peaches (or purchase them already picked) at Livesay Orchards. Continue reading
Central Maine Egg Festival, Pittsfield ME, July 13th through 18th 2015
“Brown Eggs Are Local… And Local Eggs Are Fresh.” So says the website of the Central Maine Egg Festival. We guess that rule applies to Central Maine; don’t know if that’ll work in the rest of the country. Anyway, the town of Pittsfield, in Maine, is host to the egg fest, which begins Monday the 13th and will continue through Saturday the 18th. Continue reading
Sumner County in Kansas is the Wheat Capital of the World. Wellington, Kansas is the county seat of Sumner. So it stands to reason that if you’re going to have a wheat festival, there’s no better place than Wellington. Wednesday, July 8th begins the 115th annual edition of the Kansas Wheat Festival, which runs through Sunday the 12th. The five festival days are jam-packed with events: Continue reading
It was 1973 when Grand Bay, Alabama revived an early 20th-century local tradition and put on the first Grand Bay Watermelon Festival of the modern era. The festival is courtesy of the local Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and it begins today, with free admission, at 3 p.m. On the 4th, there’s a $5 per vehicle charge for the 8 a.m. till 4 p.m. festival but admission comes with all the locally grown, ice-cold watermelon you care to eat! Continue reading
What’s a raspberry festival without raspberries? Why, that would be the Hopkins Raspberry Festival in Minnesota! When the festival began, in 1934, the area was surrounded by raspberry farms. The farms are long gone and, while the festival continued to be held, the raspberries eventually disappeared from the raspberry festival as well. In 2009, for the 75th edition of the raspberry festival, they experimented with bringing the raspberries back – pints of berries were sold all over the festival, just like in the old days. But the gesture towards a new tradition didn’t take. Continue reading
