"Wisconsin-Happy Festival State", by Eve Phillips. My husband and I love to travel in the state of Wisconsin where we live and get great pictures on the way. My name is Laurie Kutil and photography has become a great passion of mine since 2010. One thing I have learned in researching each town before visiting it is that, "Every town has it's story". When I do uncover those stories by connecting with local residents, our experience becomes so much richer. In turn, sharing the stories with you brings me joy :)
This was our first Coffee Break Festival in Stoughton in Mandt Park. This community believes themselves to be the originator of the coffee break, and they celebrate that every year in August.
The show also has a car and motorcycle show, also some tractors. Despite to cool, rainy weather, 80 cars were still entered.
Enjoy some highlights of the festival!
This year coffee from 6 roasters were available for tasting. Purchase a mug to sample your coffee, $6 for this blue mug sponsored by Conant Automotive. Or $15 for a fancy hand-painted mug with a rosemaling design.
We of course have enjoyed Berres Brothers and Door County Coffee and Tea, but have not had the other ones until today.
We were in town to celebrate Syttende Maiand found out their historical museum was also open. It was closed the other times we visited. This is the 2015 hours.
Historical markers on site.
There are two floors to explore here, so many interesting artifacts. This is a bedroom display.
The Parlor
The Kitchen
Some homes even had a Rosemaling room. Such a beautiful art form!
A Schoolhouse
An instrument we were familiar with since we saw it at the McFarland Larson House, the Psalmodicon.
Here is a display of native dresses, called bunads.
One of the best things we saw here, a 1925 fire truck!
There is so much here to see, a great place to visit any Saturday between mid-May to Labor Day.
We love coming to Stoughton and we were glad we could come to one of their biggest festivals of the year. Syttende Mai is a celebration of Norway’s Independence Day, this year is their Bicentennial! Norway became independent of Denmark on May 17, 1814.
We arrived downtown to a festive city, Norwegian flags and people wearing native clothing everywhere. We even see a street sign put up just during the festival.
We visited the craft fair first and saw so many wonderful items for sale! My favorite was GiftWorksPlus, specializing in picture frames, and they can make custom! We plan on getting some!
After visiting the craft show we headed back downtown to visit the store, Nordic Nook. I got a Syttende Mai T-shirt there.
We got settled in for the big parade at 1:30. What a great parade! So many interesting floats!
The King and Queen of 2014, also the Prince and Princess.
You’ll never guess who was in the parade, Vi Bergum 🙂 We have seen her at so many of the festivals we attend. She is in her 80’s and so full of vim and vigor.
What a wonderful parade, we had a great time helping Stoughton celebrate their homeland’s independence.
We came back in 2015, this time on a Saturday and saw other events. On Saturday is the youth parade, a bit shorter than the main parade on Sunday. Still fun though, as you can see by all the smiles.
The Prince and Princess of 2015.
The kids at Pumpkin Patch Preschool were so cute!
After the parade we enjoyed a performance by the Norwegian Dancers from Stoughton High School. Very skilled in the traditional dances, they are preparing to compete in Norway next year! Lets watch them perform one of the crowd’s favorite dances. Uff da!
Wow, what a great summer! I don’t think we could have packed much more in. Wisconsinites tend to start summer in May since there is so much going on and warm days don’t last long. We were no exception. Our summer began May 13 with our trip to Cedarburg.
