Rhubarb Fest entering its 15th year

The Shawano County Historical Society is hosting the 15th annual Rhubarb Festival on June 17 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Heritage Park.

This family friendly event has been a staple of summer in Shawano and is essential to the continued longevity and success of the historical society.

“It’s our major fundraiser, and we have done very well,” said Kathy Braun, of the Shawano Historical Society. “Everything we make here stays in the county and goes mostly for operational costs, like paying the bills.”

Visitors will recognize familiar favorites as well as some new additions this year. The festival will feature a variety of activities including tours of the historical society’s museum buildings, live music, and of course, everything rhubarb.

There will be many baked goods with rhubarb donated by volunteers, beverages including Twig’s rhu-berry slushies, rhubarb beer from Stubborn Brothers Brewery, Hammen family wine, rhubarb lemonade, and savory items like brats and burgers available for purchase among many others.

Based on rhubarb being in season in June and as not to duplicate Clintonville’s Strawberry Festival, the choice was made to create an annual Rhubarb Festival to celebrate and enjoy rhubarb. Over the years, the festival has changed and expanded to include more offerings and entertainment.

“It started out about 15 years ago to generate awareness of the historical society and the buildings we have, and it snowballed from there,” Braun said. “We were doing it with the Sundrop Dayz and whatever was going on downtown, but we didn’t have as much traffic, so we changed to go out independently and do it on our own.”

This year will feature a newly renovated dairy exhibit building. In addition to several interior updates and new displays, visitors can see an original section of Angie’s diner and ice cream parlor.

Several vendors will also be onsite offering a variety of goods including maple syrup, crafts, artwork, soaps and jewelry among others.

The historical society’s gift shop will also be open and will feature several rhubarb themed products for sale including a cookbook and jam. Rhubarb plants and other perennials will be available for purchase at a plant sale on site hosted by the Shawano Woman’s Club.

Raffle tickets will be available for sale to win baskets featuring goods donated by local businesses and individuals.

“It’s just a lot of fun,” Braun said. “It’s free and there’s games for the kids and entertainment under the tent, food and demonstrators. We have seven to eight buildings here and the train depot. We just finished renovating the dairy building but we would love to have a building donated. We have plenty of artifacts to fill things up. That would be wonderful. We always need volunteers.”

Visitors can also enter a pie baking contest and view live demonstrations of fur trading, basket weaving, wood carving and a civil war encampment by Civil War Re-enactment Company E, 2nd Wisconsin.

Children can enjoy face paintings and win prizes playing games after completing a punch card.

Live music will also be playing. Ike Arumba will perform acoustic original and cover songs from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and country and southern rock Renegade Light will play country and southern rock from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. under a tent. The Scott Buettner Combo will be playing at the Old Tabor Church.

The Rhubarb Festival will be held at Heritage Park, 524 N. Franklin St., Shawano. Admission and parking are both free, with designated parking lots behind Old Tabor Church and in the city parking lots on Second and Washington streets.