Heritagefest benefits from good weather

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Heritagefest 2004 winds down today with its annual street parade and a full schedule of bands and dancers continuing until after 8 tonight.

Despite the highway construction work being done in New Ulm, this Heritagefest edition will go down in history as one of the most blessed fests as far as the weather is concerned.

With all the bad weather bulletins being issued for the area, the only rain came in the form of a shower early on opening day. From that point on, it was clear sailing with mostly sunshine and moderate temperatures.

The Heritagefest parade -- the only event taking place off of the Fairgrounds site -- launches from the Fairgrounds at 12:15 p.m. and follows a traditional route down North State Street to Sixth North where it turns and continues to North Franklin where it turns to return to the Fairgrounds.

Following the parade, events will be taking place on all five stages until closing. The Heidelberg Quartett (plus one) will be alternating with the Morris Dancers, the Schell's Hobo Band and the Concord Singers in the Rosen Tent.

In Fest Halle, Musikverein Herborn-Seelbach will be alternating with Don Klossner. In the Bayerwald Tent, fest-goers will hear Die Oswalder band from Austria, watch the Mexican Folk Dancers from Sleepy Eye and enjoy the Fest Keg Opening and Concord Singers concert.

On the Variety Stage, the Theatre of Fools will be alternating with the Lin Hans Rud Dancers of Hanska while on the nearby Kinderfest Stage, fest-goers will be watching Ross Sutter of Minneapolis plus the Heritagefest Narren.

Saturday's second go-around of sauerkraut wrestling proved to be just as popular with the dyed-in-the-can sauerkraut fans. Some 200 spectators were attracted by the unmistakable odor to the sauerkraut pit, with its 200 pounds-plus of Grade A sauerkraut, for the first tag team match of the afternoon.

Greg "Cabbage Head" Thomas and his last-minute partner, Jeffrey Bohlmann, proved to be durable opponents for the World Sauerkraut Wrestling champions, Jeff "Dumpling" Dittrich and Tim "Knaakworst" Knaak.

After "rasslin'" nearly 15 minutes and managing to dump ceremonial Referee Tom Wheeler of Edina in the gooey 'kraut, the Dittrich-Knaak team managed to get that all important pin.

A few minutes prior, at the Rosen Tent, a seven-year-old New Ulm girl was honored for being the Heritagefest Poster Child of 2004. A photo of Michaela Howk, daughter of Sheila and Michael Howk, was used on virtually every piece of promotional material used to promote this year's event, Heritagefest Director Kathleen Backer said.

"It appeared (as a cameo in a photo grouping) on 55,000 brochures, 25,000 souvenir brochures and other material. I found her picture when going through file photos for this year's campaign, and when we identified her, we found out that her parents lived right across the street from the Fairgrounds," Backer said.