Summer is now here, basically if not yet officially, and the fests follow.
You would have to wait until June 13, the nearest date if going strictly by definition, to celebrate in partial form Juneteenth. But the party drink of the summer, Juneshine, recently (in May already?), hit the shelves with two new flavors, and that makes eight actually, when you consider that these are multi-flavored multi-packs.
But the usual summer festivals in western Wisconsin skip the weekend after Memorial Day, then hit home starting with Pea Soup Days in Somerset and Windmill Days in Baldwin and also Good Neighbor Days in Roberts, for about four days each around the first full weekend in June. The various fests will then continue into September, making for well over a dozen in total. But moving forward, most of the action except for a lone Heartland Happening is not geographically dead-center. So a couple of paragraphs down is some circular reasoning. Since the main freeway through the middle does not necessarily make for fest fodder.
— Since I started down the rabbit-hole, here are the bands at those introductory fests I tabbed, one true to form the other steering away from the Same Old, Same Old Glory. Although it is All That, even if a Bad Habit.
Pea Soup Days has on Friday night the Bad Habits Brass band, and with a name like that you know what you’ll be getting, but with a twist, and some added funk thrown in. On Saturday night, it’s All That, which makes the interesting marketing choice of saying their ’90s and 2000’s music is nostalgic. I guess you don’t have to be from the ’70s to be About That.
Windmill Days brings to fore classic stuff that’s full boar that way, with the Stone Daisy Band (country on Friday), and Good For Gary (pop and rock on Saturday.) —
Going the other direction on Interstate 94 will take you to Minneapolis-St. Paul, but … To move quite a bit north, the Osceola Rhubarb Fest is also the weekend of June 8, and a friend swore up and down that over in the Twin Cities, he would certainly be at the Amigo the Devil concert a week earlier. Bluegrass, and there are local fests for that too, thus gets even harsher in a deviously diabolical way.
However, where found in the round about Wisconsin, the usual festival bill includes more mainstream live music, typically country or classic rock on a Friday and Saturday night just for starters, a parade through the town that is hosting, concession food and drink, assorted carnival games and other activities, crafts and curiousities and maybe baked goods for purchase, 5-K runs and often a truck pull or demolition derby.
Selected ones — usually those large in scope or with something out of the ordinary to offer — will be promoted in-depth later on this website, (for example, axe throwing of a significant distance will get you farther than auctions), and here’s a list of the biggest of the rest. (They’re presented just for fun, as that’s what we’re after here, not necessarily in a chronological order but in a roughly circular geographic around-the-two-counties fashion by each month, taking into account those of you driving from The Cities.) Hey there are 17 fests to choose from, and those are just the major ones, and almost that many weekends with some events throwing in a Thursday as well, so giving all the dates would be cumbersome. But hey, here goes a summary:
For June jaunts, you veer south to the Roots and Bluegrass Music Festival in River Falls and east to Ellsworth Cheese Curd Days;
Then jumping into July, and more homage, Hudson Booster Days, River Falls Days, Elmwood UFO Days, Plum City Summer Fest, St. Croix County Fair in Glenwood City and Fun Fest in New Richmond;
Availing you in August, El Paso Days near River Falls, Pierce County Fair in Ellsworth, Hammond Heartland Days, Star Prairie Ox Cart Days with help from New Richmond, and Pepper Fest in North Hudson, to complete a circle.
Highlighting September is again going south to Prescott Daze. And go even farther south, there is more to be had for fests, mostly along the river.
There are also smaller gatherings in all kinds of little bergs. Groupings of garage sales, chicken feeds, many fireworks-based blasts, art fairs, car shows, corn fests, and even a Yellowstone Trail Hertitage Day and Jazz Summit to wrap it up.
Oh yeah, farmer’s markets and concerts in the park(s) are ongoing.
So see you around St. Croix and Pierce counties. At least until the leaves change.