Burlington is ready to celebrate its 30th ChocolateFest
As Burlington’s ChocolateFest enters its 30th year, organizers can look back with nostalgia at how the annual event, held Memorial Day weekend, has evolved.
There was a time when festival patrons had one question on their minds – “Where’s the chocolate?”
Now, whenever organizers hear the question, they point emphatically to the Chocolate Experience tent rising prominently from the festival grounds on the north side of the city’s downtown.
This year’s festival – with its election year theme: Vote for Chocolate – runs Friday through Monday.
The Chocolate Experience tent – which is air-conditioned to guard against messy melts on hot days – is home to all things chocolate: from eating and carving contests to cooking demonstrations and a fashion show featuring clothing made from Nestle’ candy wrappers. It also houses a variety of vendors selling a plethora of chocolate confections.
For those who like sample the treats, the festival offers an $8 Taster Ticket that can be redeemed for 12 chocolate samples inside the tent. And everyone passing through the tent has a chance to walk away with a complimentary, fresh-baked Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie.
This year, the festival’s chocolate cooking contest takes on a new angle with teams of area high school students competing for top honors. The High School Culinary Challenge under the direction of Chef David Ross and Chef Alex Newman features teams competing for monetary prizes that will benefit their school’s ProStart programs. ProStart is a national program that introduces students to careers in the restaurant and food service industries.
Four teams will compete on Friday evening to reach the finals scheduled for Sunday.
The tent will also host demonstrations from Dan Small, host of MPTV’s “Outdoor Wisconsin,” Chef Ross and Chef Kevin Rausch of Lake Lawn Resort, Delavan.
But even the rare person who doesn’t love chocolate will find plenty of fun at ChocolateFest. Multiple stages offer nearly continuous entertainment – from the All-American Lumberjack Show to live music performances by artists such as Bella Cain, The Britins and Chasin’ Mason – for a variety of tastes.
Among the other events are a Friday night fireworks display, the Jaycees arts and crafts fair in Echo Park and the community Memorial Day parade at 9 a.m. May 25.
A wild ride
As usual there will be plenty of fun for children with the Burlington Rotary Carnival featuring North American Midway Entertainment, which is the largest traveling outdoor amusement park in the country.
The carnival offers ride band tickets, which include unlimited rides during certain times of the festival. The ride band tickets cost $30 on the grounds.
Ride band times are:
- Thursday, 5 p.m. to close.
- Friday, 4 p.m. to close.
- Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to close.
- Monday, noon to close.
A new ride band ticket is needed for each day of the festival.
Community benefit
Perhaps the best part of ChocolateFest, according to organizers, is that all this activity generates money for community service.
The festival is a major fundraiser for many of the area’s non-profit organizations that provide the volunteer workforce for the festival. In recent years ChocolateFest has generated nearly $100,000 annually for these groups, who, in turn, pour the money back into a variety of community programs and services.
Since it’s inception, the festival has generated more than $2 million for these charitable organizations.
Click HERE for our full guide to the festival.
