Heritagefest resumes

'A typical

Friday' for

the fest

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- It was a typical Heritagefest and it was a not so typical Heritagefest.

On Friday, the weather was just as it was a week ago --sunny, cool and clear.

The crowd was hungry, enthusiastic and diverse.

Diversity seemed to take the day as Heritagefest offered one of its more colorful programs in years. Some main musical attractions of the day seemed to be rhythm and blues band Powerhouse, rock-cordionist Lynn Marie and the Mexican folk dancers from Sleepy Eye -- even though the imported talent from Germany and Austria also drew good numbers of people.

Overall, Heritagefest's organizers seemed pleased with the day, although they described it as a "typical second Friday".

President Hugh Nierengarten said the annual festival had an average first weekend and said Friday was "the same." He noted that a large number of tour groups were in town yesterday and that the day had "more variety of entertainment than last year."

"In terms of weather, we couldn't have asked for anything better," he said. "And these grounds are looking like the best they've been in years."

Typically, the second weekend for the festival runs smoothly for its organizers because most of Heritagefest's kinks are worked out during the first week.

Likewise, director Kathleen Backer also described yesterday as "a typical Friday. It starts off slow but then it starts mounting."

Early concerns were that the Civic Center fest hall wouldn't work out very well, but Backer said organizers have found that the indoor, air-conditioned arena has given a refuge to people who want to get away from the heat and insects that sometimes eat festgoers when the sun goes down.

Backer said she's also quite happy with the new mix of acts on the entertainment schedule. She noted the Mexican folk dancers from Sleepy Eye, Powerhouse and Lynn Marie have all attracted sizeable crowds, many of whom traditionally belonged to other ethnic groups.

"I think it's great," said Elia Dimayuga-Bruggeman, principal at Sleepy Eye High School and director of the Mexican dancers of Heritagefest. "It's fantastic. I like how it has a mixture of cultures. It's important how Heritagefest has included many other groups in the program."

Mayor Joel Albrecht seemed to agree with organizers when he said, "I think we have as good a crowd as can be expected. It's just an absolutely perfect day."

Albrecht spent a good deal of his time strolling the festival grounds, shaking hands with friends, meeting new people and performing the typical ceremonial duties. One of those was the fest keg tapping. In a short speech made Friday afternoon, he asked newcomers to "come back and visit often."

"I ran into some people from Minneapolis and I said 'Why aren't you at the Aquatennial?'. And they said 'Because we wanted to be where a good party was'," he said.