A cool, sunny start for Heritagefest

By KURT NESBITT'

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- With the exception of a little rain, the skies above Heritagefest were blue and clear, the weather cool and calm and crowds lively and robust.

Weather has always been a factor in the success of Heritagefest and both organizers and festgoers said they thought Friday's weather was ideal.

Crowds at midday were small, scattered and were made up mostly of older people. By 6 p.m. the venerable cultural festival had achieved its usual mix of seniors, young families and young adults. As the sun set, the younger crowds came out for a little German-flavored night time frolic.

The tents were either incredibly full or really empty, evidently depending upon which act was playing where. Among the noticeable crowd favorites were Chicago-based New Odyssey and the Concord Singers.

Several hundred people showed up for the taping of KEYC-TV's popular 'Bandstand' program, which was performed inside the Civic Center Fest Halle for the first time on Friday to the strains of Peter and Paul Wendinger's dual concertina-wielding polka band.

Many returned later in the evening for another KEYC-sponsored event, the Star Search talent show, where nine finalists competed using several different styles of music in a local, miniature version of the network television show.

Outside on the festival grounds, many of the other features appeared to have gone virtually unnoticed. The hammer-schlagen saw a few handfuls of contestants and the climbing wall managed to attract a few people but not many.

This year, as in year's past, Heritagefest reeled in a few tours from other parts of the Midwest. Tour groups from Waseca, Winona, Cambridge, Faribault, Pine Island and Mankato were in town Friday, as were others from Omaha, Neb., Norfolk, Neb. and Galena, Ill. A few others came from North Dakota, Iowa and New York City.

And then there are transplanted New Ulmers who went north to the Twin Cities but came home for the fest. Jason Gieseke and Jon Radke went to New Ulm High School together and have made a point to come back for Heritagefest every year since they graduated nine years ago. Gieseke now lives in Champlin, a northern suburb of Minneapolis and Radke resides in St. Louis Park, a suburb adjacent to Minneapolis on its southwestern side.

Gieseke and Radke stood near a light pole in German hats adorned with many pins, watching the Concord Singers' evening set with plastic Schell's cups in hand.

"It's off to a pretty good start," Gieseke said.

"It was better than last year's first Friday," said Heritagefest President Hugh Nierengarten, when asked for his opinion on the crowd level. "We're getting the flow going."

Nierengarten spent a good deal of his day introducing people and doing what he called "putting out brushfires" and "debugging" little problems around the festival grounds. He said having the Fest Halle presented more debugging because it is a new addition.

"With the Fest Halle, it's been kind of a learning curve," he said.

New Ulm mayor-turned-Kraut King Joel Albrecht strolled past the Civic Center on his way to the sauerkraut-making demonstration booth. Once there, he went to work trying to recruit passers-by to come learn about how to make the German side dish.

"This is our festival," he said as he strolled down the fairground's main road. "Everyone in New Ulm is involved."