More Frigid Fun: Cedarburg Winter Fest 2013

Yesterday, I spent the entire day up in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, about 20 miles north of Milwaukee, to attend their annual Winter Fest.  I had never been to this festival before, but I found out it has been celebrated for almost 40 years.  There were a lot of fun events for kids and adults including a chili contest, cupcake contest (more on that Thursday), wine tasting (Cedarburg is known for Cedar Creek wine), ice skating, hay rides, a snowball fight, and a very unusual parade.

It starts and ends as most parades around the country do, with a salute to veterans and a display by the local fire department.  But, in between, the Cedarburg Winter Fest Parade features bed floats that go on to compete in a bed race on the frozen Cedar Creek. I didn't get to see the race itself since I was scheduled for a group photowalk meetup at 2:00, but as you can see below, they get pretty outrageous, and that's the fun of it. 

The theme of this year's fest is "Winter Safari" so the Crème & Crepe restaurant's float fit in well with crepes running alongside a jeep.

I admit I haven't been to any parades in Milwaukee, so I don't know if this is ordinary, but this parade featured the Miller Park Racing Sausages, Bennie Brewer and the Admirals mascot (whatever it is).

It wouldn't be a festival in Wisconsin without an ice sculpture contest, as you may have seen from previous posts recently.  Most went along with the "Winter Safari" theme, like the hippo above.

And this monkey holding binoculars.

But I think this sculpture was the coolest (no pun intended) of a snow leopard.

And this person was finishing up his hippo after judging ended at 2:00 which gave me the opportunity to photograph it as it was being carved.

Even though it was a very cold day (high of 16 degrees), there were a lot of activities at the Winter Fest to keep people from forgetting the frigid day.  I will have more photos Wednesday of Cedarburg from the photowalk, and then on Thursday I'll have photos from the cupcake contest.  Come back soon!