Freaky Festivals
 

A friend sent me a press release about a Hot Dog festival "The 10th annual Hot Dog Fest, hosted by the Ligonier Valley Writers group, will commemorate the historical role of western Pennsylvania in the French and Indian War, which began in Ligonier, Pa., 250 years ago this summer." Huh???? Hot dogs & war????

I remember the Morgan City, LA Shrimp & Petroleum Festival.

Does anyone have any other strange local festivals to share?

Though half the people I know attend every year, I always think of the "Burning Man" festival in Nevada as being a tad strange.

I attended the "Toad Suck Days" festival last summer in Conway, Arkansas (about an hour from Little Rock). It's just a small town fest with craft booths, food (including fried Twinkies...Mmmm), and music. It's aparantly named for the "sailors" who used to travel the Arkansas River, who would dock near by, go to the local pub, and "suck on the bottle until they swole up like toads." They of course have frog jumping contests and such. Surely there was something else they could have thought of to name their festival, though! VERY entertaining and scary. :)

Hmmmm Toad Suck wins freaky for me.

There was just a Shrimp Festival near here on Amelia Island. But the weather was so bad we stayed away. I picture little Shrimp riding little floats down Main St :D

Oh us silly Californians-lets see
there is the Garlic Festival in Gilroy,
which of course celebrates all things garlic, the Caleveras County fair which is all about bikers and frog jumping,
contests, then of course my towns'
Butter and Egg Day Fest-the parade is best-this year there was a guy in a '66 Valiant that he and 3 friends covered in yellow feathers-all of them were wearing chicken masks as they drove along-and of course there is the
lawn chair drill team-always a favorite.
But I do wonder about the Hot Dogs &
war...
R5
3 friends covered with

That hot dog festival ought to go really well with the annual Sourkraut (sp?) festival held every summer in beautiful downtown Waynesville, Ohio.

The sauerkraut should go great with the Brautwurst at the Brautwurst Festival in Bucyrus, Ohio.

Some other "weird" Ohio festivals:
Walleye Festival in Port Clinton, Ohio.
Wooly Bear Festival in Vermillion, Ohio.
We have your standard tomatoe, strawberry, pumpkin and melon festivals also. :-)

Scarlett--The Shrimp Festival is a lot of fun! We used to go when we were stationed nearby. Still have a print that we bought there:)

mms-we love Amelia Island and I love spending days wandering the shops there. The dock restaurant at the end of the street is great and I love to look for Mannatees in the water there by the dock :)
The weather was very stormy this weekend, so we will have to wait until next festival...mannatee festival?? LOL

Scarlett--our son was born at Fernandina so we have fond memories of the island. Yes, the restaurant at the end is agreat place to sit and watch the world go by. There is a great place for fudge in that main street area...not sure what is in it but it does not melt...even on the August heat! We used to buy it and then take it to the beach.

fairfax: Are you sure it's not the Viognier Valley Writer's group? Anything goes well w/a good viognier, even hot dogs, and even saurkraut (sp? I just watched the Natl. Spelling Bee live from D.C. this past Sat. night and that should have been a word!)

I know you asked for local festivals, but I can't get this one out of my mind after seeing your question so here goes. The strangest festival I've ever seen was the radish festival in Oaxaca, Mexico on Christams Eve. This was way before I did much planning when I traveled. I happened to be in Oaxaca on Christams Eve, and early in the day about 20 of the local families set up tables in the main square and started taking these enormous long tubor radishes (no kidding, like 2ft long and 10 inches in diameter, apparently grown especially for this day) and they started carving things from them. By around 6 p.m. they all had carved entire nativity scenes, complete with animals, angels, and all the main characters. It was amazing to watch. I don't recall that it was competitive, no prizes or judging, but during the evening they all had candles illuminating their nativiy scenes and you could just walk around the square and view them, while eating the local pastry, bunuelos, and smashing your plate on the ground. I'll never forget it. I recently saw a book on Oaxaca and they had pictures of it, so I guess it still happens every year. I just stumbled into it.

I used to live in a little town in Lousiana called Blanchard and we had the Poke Salad Festival. Yahoo! It was fun, actually. They had this very competitive event where people tried to climb a 25' pole slathered with axel grease. Whomever got to the top won a pretty big cash prize. We were always so strapped for cash in those days we prayed to climb that big 'ol greased pole. It sure got you dirty! Then there was the Miss Poke Salad Pagent. Imagine our pride when my niece was crowned Miss Corn Pone. The family celebrate by boiling corn and mudbugs (oh, which was another festival in La) in a halved 55 gallon barrel and spread it all out on the picnic table for a feast. I'd fry up a mess of frog legs that had been caught in the swamp the night before.
I am NOT joking!
Oh the joys to have been married into an Acadian family!
I'm no longer poor and no longer married to that man (with my 18 brother and sister in laws and 28 nieces and nephews) but I must admit I sometimes miss these crazy festivals that made life so interesting!

There's the ever popular onion festival in Vacaville, CA. Onion pancakes, onion dip, fried onion, grilled onion, braised onion, onion soup, onion candy, onion ice cream...

The Portugese Festival in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Although started many years ago by a group of Portugese immigrants to celebtrate their safe voyage to America, the current Festival is a mockery of their original intent.

Buoyed by a listing in a Book of Lists several years ago, the hundred thousand Portugese who attend this 3 day festival try to outdo the previous records of consuming the most beer at one event.

Doesn't it make sense that in Buffalo New York we have a Chicken Wing Festival? Some local entepreneur took off with the idea a couple of years ago after a local newspaper columnist suggested that Buffalo do something to take advantage of this wonderful food that only Buffalo knows how to do right. It's been a success

I pulled the quote from their press release, so I hope they got it right.

I've been to Toad Suck!!!! I have a "triple-barrel" name, and we thought it would look great on engraved writing paper, just above my Toad Suck, Arkansas address!

Hmmmmmm just thinking....

Does Intercourse, PA have a festival??

How about French Lick, IN?

It's either Ayden or Grifton, NC (two small towns near each other in eastern NC) has the Shad festival. At the festival there is a contest for best fish-head stew. I think I'll pass on it, but it is a tradition.

The Brussel Sprout festival in Santa Cruz, Ca isn't exactly freaky, but it is a bit of a head scratcher. Why would people want to go to a festival where everything has brussel spouts in it?

I'm not sure I can top "Toad Suck Days" but Whiting, Indiana (1/2 hour or so from Chicago) has a Pierogi Fest, complete with a Pierogi Parade-one of the wackiest parades I've ever seen- dancing pierogiettes, Mr. Pierogi, Eastern Bloc jeopardy and of course lots and lots of pierogis to eat!