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Sun Prairie, Wisconsin
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Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival 2009
The Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival is always held
the third weekend in August.
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin will host the annual Sweet Corn Festival Thursday, August 20 through Sunday, August 23, 2009 at Angell Park, near the intersection of Highway 19 and Highway N.
Click HERE for more info on the 2009 Sweet Corn Festival
Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival
August 16 - 19,
2007
The Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival is always held the third full weekend in August.
The Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival kicked off on Thursday evening with the Sweet Corn Festival Parade. It was attended by thousands of people including many children. Thursday evening and Friday's events included Booths and a Carnival at the Festival Grounds in Angell Park next to the Angell Race Track. Friday evening, The Invaders were schedule to entertain, playing "great oldies" music, as part of the festivities.
Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival Loses $40,000 to $50,000 due to rain.
Saturday and Sunday were the days when you could purchase fresh steamed Sweet Corn, but only about 4,000 to 5,000 people were able to take part in the feast. The Sun Prairie area was soaked on Saturday with over three inches of rain. The event closed early Saturday night after approximately 23-25 tons of corn were prepared. On Sunday the whole Sweet Corn Festival was cancelled because of flooding on the Festival Grounds and danger of electrical shock.
Over 100,000 people were expected to attend from around the Midwest. The Sweet Corn Festival was expected to serve over 70 tons of steamed sweet corn during the weekend. Unfortunately for yours truly, we were waiting until Sunday to go and get a couple of "totes" of sweet corn. (I wonder how many ears of corn are in a "tote"? Nobody seems to think to put that in an advertisement but I would assume it is either six ears or five ears. Being a "tote", I would think that the amount of ears could vary and still be a "tote." Its not as though it is a dozen or a "farmer's dozen." ) But we just missed out on a few ears of corn while the Festival took a big hit on the corn not being sold. It has been estimated that the cost will be $40,000 to $50,000. Not small change for all of the non-profit organizations hoping to make a good part of their yearly revenue from the event. Seventy tons of sweet corn had to be ordered from someone and most of it was not used. The Sunday order of corn was cancelled and instead sent to a Del Monte plant in Illinois to be canned.
Corn Festival Events
Some of the featured events for the Corn Festival were the Rock Climbing Wall, Petting Zoo, Quad Power Jump, Amazon Adventure Obstacle Course, the Beer Tent, Craft Fair - handmade crafts - over 60 vendors, also Bingo and Saturday and Sunday and Midget Auto racing on Sunday evening.
The Sweet Corn Festival benefits the following organizations: The American Legion Post 333, Boy Scout Troop 333, Chamber of Commerce, Exchange Club, Happy Hikers 4-H, Knights of Columbus, Lions Club, Rotary Club, VFW and the YMCA.
The sweet corn is particularly sweet because the corn is steamed "in the husk." This method heightens the flavor and sweetness as opposed to other methods of cooking such as roasting or boiling the sweet corn. The steaming of the corn was first done by the Stokley Company. In 1997 the city of Sun Prairie found it necessary to build their own facility for steaming the corn and constructed the special building to house the corn steaming equipment. It was built in Sheehan Park. It is only used once a year, for the Sweet Corn Festival. The Sweet Corn is steamed for seventeen minutes at 250 degrees. They use five "retorts" to cook the corn in and then it is driven over to the festival park where it is served hot to hungry customers. Think of a "retort" as a huge cylindrical metal container that is about 3 feet in diameter and ten feet deep. A giant metal ca lender or basket that is used to hold two to three hundred ears of corn is lowered into the huge steamer. The steam is produced by a giant boiler is about nine feet by nine feet by twenty feet long and it could steam heat one hundred and twenty homes at one time. The steaming is said to seal in the flavor. The corn is grown in the sandy soil near Steven's Point and Plover and picked fresh each day.
First Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival
The first Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival, the oldest Sweet Corn Festival in Wisconsin, took place in 1953 on August 29th and 30th. That first year, thirteen thousand ears of corn were severed to six thousand people on one day, August 29th. The Sweet Corn Festival continues to be the major fund raiser for many Sun Prairie non-profit organizations.
2007 Sponsors of the Sweet Corn Festival:
'Golden Ear' Sponsors:
AnchorBank, FSB
Becker Boiler
Bradley Farms, Inc.
Brooks Tractor Inc.
Del Monte Foods
First Choice Dental Group
Green Valley Disposal
Hebl, Hebl, & Ripp
Miller Beer
NBC 15 - Coverage You Can Count On
Pepsi-Cola
Sign 1-1
Summit Credit Union
Sun Prairie Tourism Commission
US Bank
Walmart
'Silver Kernel' Sponsors:
Hanley Company
Heartland Credit Union
Homestead Cheese
Stark Automotive
Trachte Building Systems
Sprout Sponsors:
Affordable 35 mm Slide Scanning
AMS
Amerihost Inn
Associated Bank
Bank of Sun Prairie
Eustice, Laffey, Sebranek & Auby
Razorback Farms, Inc
Roger's Paint 'n Paper
State Farm - Geoff Wilkins Agency
Sun Prairie Civic Theatre
Token Creek Veterinary Clinic
Veridian Homes