The Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival
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The Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival, or Cheesefest, is a festival held in the village of Little Chute, Wisconsin at Little Chute's Doyle Park on the first weekend of every June. This annual event kicks off "Dairy Month."
[edit] History
Each year the village of Little Chute, Wisconsin celebrates The Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival to honor one of their largest exports, producing two billion pounds, or 25% of the nation's cheese per year. Since 1988, the first weekend in June has been a celebration in Little Chute. The Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival is a celebration of Wisconsin's dairy industry and especially of the area's cheese producers. The Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival is a three-day event that takes place at Doyle Park. The festival is a family event that features music, the Big Cheese parade, cheese tasting, a cheese carving demonstration, a cheesecake contest, a cheese curds eating contest, carnival rides, children’s games and entertainment, the Golden K’s Big Cheese breakfast, and food and refreshments sold by nonprofit organizations.
A few years ago visitors to the festival were encouraged to dip their faces in whey for the Model Your Own Milk Mustache Contest. The cheese carving contest is a regular favorite, as chefs and artisans compete to carve 40-pound blocks of mild cheddar into objects of beauty - past festivals have seen themes as diverse as a farmhouse, a corporate logo (trying to butter up the judges?) and even a cow.
It is the cheesecake competition, however, that strikes a chord with most visitors. Americans love cheesecake almost as much as they love pies, and there is no shortage of volunteer testers in this particular culinary contest.
In its first year, the festival received national attention for its cheese tasting contest between Wisconsin and New York. It all began when an editorial appeared in a local newspaper which questioned why a national cheese museum was placed in Rome, New York. Wisconsin Senator Chilsen got involved by penning a poem stating that Wisconsin, the Dairy State, should have been the site of the museum, since it made the most and the best cheese. New York responded by holding an impromptu “cheese off” in New York. New York, of course, declared their cheese the winner, but Wisconsin cheese lovers wouldn’t let it end there. The citizens of Little Chute offered to hold another “cheese off," this time at the 1st Annual Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival. The Mayor of Rome, New York, Carl Eilenberg accepted the invitation to attend, and the Cheese Festival sent him a plane ticket. In the contest, Wisconsin cheese won in all categories, and was dubbed “Best Cheese in the USA." Mayor Eilenberg filed a protest claiming the tasting was unfair, since the cheeses were easily identifiable as “Wisconsin” and “New York." He requested a blind testing on live television and proceeded to blindfold a TV reporter on the scene. Blindfolded, the reporter picked Wisconsin cheese as the best. The festival continues to get national coverage in many publications including The Old Farmer's Almanac for 2000 and an episode of The Food Network's "All American Festivals" in 2003.
[edit] Legacy
The festival is coordinated by the efforts of Village employees and community volunteers who make up the Board of Directors. The festival's success can be contributed to the many volunteers who give of their time and talents. The festival benefits the community in many ways. Since its inception the festival has donated over $201,000 to community organizations, projects, and schools. Beneficiaries have included programs at Little Chute schools, the Gerard H. Van Hoof Library/Civic Center, Little Chute police, fire and recreation departments, the fitness center, Outagamie County 4-H programs, and scout troops, among others. Scholarships have been given yearly to students in the surrounding area. The profits from the festival have also been used for major park improvements; namely, the amphitheater, a new addition to the pool deck, playground equipment, and a new concession stand at Doyle Park and playground equipment for Van Lieshout Park (formerly Sunnydale Park).
