SCHMECKFEST 2024: READY TO ROLL
For the 63rd time since it debuted in 1959, the Freeman community’s big celebration of its Germans-from-Russia heritage set to return this week
The number of people in Freeman will increase exponentially late this week and into the weekend as Freeman’s most storied annual tradition returns for the 63rd time.
Schmeckfest, established in March of 1959 as a one-night event to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Freeman Junior College Women’s Auxiliary, will take place on the campus of Freeman Academy Friday and Saturday, March 15 and 16. It will once again feature a traditional supper and full-scale musical in Pioneer Hall both nights, as well as a host of other attractions inside three other buildings: Sterling Hall; the school’s maintenance building just to the north; and Heritage Hall Museum & Archives further to the south, located between the Freeman Academy campus and Prairie Arboretum.
The festival is free to attend, but tickets are required for both the meal and the musical, and admission is charged at Heritage Hall Museum & Archives.
Nathan Epp, who is co-coordinator of this year’s Schmeckfest alongside Janet Balzer and a larger steering committee of seven, is excited about carrying on this storied tradition and all it has to offer its guests.
“We’ve been around for a long time, and people know the food is going to be good, the show is going to be good, and now with all the other different things the museum is doing, there’s lots of stuff for people to do,” he said.
“It’s a celebration and a time for the community to come together,” says Balzer. “To see all these visitors coming to enjoy themselves — it’s like a class reunion for a lot of people.”
Most of the activities will begin at or after 1 p.m. both Friday and Saturday, although Heritage Hall Museum & Archives opens at 10 a.m. and the Schmeck Shoppe food stand operated by Freeman Academy students opens at noon.
Among the high-traffic areas:
The Schmeckfest Country Kitchen inside the Sterling Hall auditorium, which opens at 1 p.m.;
Sausage sales in the building to the north of Sterling Hall, where guests can try samples and purchase rings to take home;
The live Spotlight Demonstration inside the Sterling Hall auditorium that start at 1:30 p.m. Those presenting include Susan Schrag showing poppyseed rolls at 1:30 p.m., Amy Waltner showing pumpkin rolls at 2:30 p.m., LaVonne Brockmueller showing priescha (apple tarts) at 3:30 p.m. and Lacey Friesen showing cheese pockets at 4:30 p.m. Epp says organizers have made plans for additional seating to accommodate overflow crowds;
The Freeman Academy Musical Showcase at 2 p.m. inside the Sterling Hall instrumental room — always a full house;
The artisan demonstrations inside Heritage Hall Museum & Archives that begin at 1 p.m., as well as the Heritage Pickers demonstrations that begin at 1:25 p.m. — each one just 10 minutes long (see last week’s Courier and page 3B and 11B of this week’s edition for detailed information);
The meal, for which serving begins at 3:30 p.m. The line to wait for a seat typically starts around 4:30 p.m., when guests will receive a number and wait in the Pioneer Hall auditorium until their number is called;
The box office for “Shrek the Musical.” While this year’s production is sold out in terms of reserved seating, general admission tickets are available at the Pioneer Hall lobby box office starting at 6 p.m. each night, with doors opening at 7 p.m.
All of it is happening thanks to an all-volunteer force coordinated by Epp and Balzer and members of a specialized steering committee:
- Beth Bontrager (Country Kitchen)
- Kris Carlson (musical)
- Libby Miller (spotlight demonstrations)
- Paul Ortman (IT)
- Les Rensink (sausage)
- Deb Schmeichel (kitchen)
- Vernetta Waltner (advertising/social media)
“A very talented and experienced group; everybody has their area of expertise,” said Epp. “They have been great to work with.”
“We all make decisions together and work well in that way,” said Balzer.
60-plus and counting
This year’s Schmeckfest comes four years after a worldwide pandemic brought a temporary halt to a fundraiser for Freeman Academy that had taken place each of the previous 61 years.
The festival was founded 65 years ago as a way for the Freeman Junior College Women’s Auxiliary to observe a decade of existence and raise money for the school. The centerpiece of that was an invitation for members to make and serve foods brought to the new country by members of the three primary Germans-from-Russia settlers: the Hutterites, Swiss and Low Germans, who all came from Russia and the Ukraine to relieve religious and military demands.
The first Schmeckfest (a made-up word by the FJC Auxiliary that combines the German phrase for “tasting and smelling” and “festival”) was held on March 13, 1959.
Organizers at first planned to serve 200 people before doubling the expectation, only to be overrun by a line that extended well into the Pioneer Hall parking lot. In the end, more than 1,000 people from Freeman and the surrounding area (something planners had not counted on) overwhelmed servers and the planning committee, turning a well-intentioned evening and casual 10-year anniversary celebration into what some have called a disaster.
Never again, some said, but a bit of encouragement from the Mitchell Daily Republic may have made the difference between a one-and-done and a legendary festival that keeps on cooking.
“If you folks have another — we’d like to know about it,” the Republic wrote the week after that first Schmeckfest. “We’re intrigued by food — especially when it has a novel touch like the many favorite foods of those people who have brought the recipes from their native lands.”
And during a historical presentation that was part of Schmeckfest in 2008, local historian Norman Hofer put it in perspective.
“It was probably the worst public relations problem Freeman ever had,” he said, adding that it was also “probably the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to Freeman Academy.”
Indeed, not long after that initial Friday the 13th “disaster,” the ladies bounced back.
The Auxiliary began calling it an “annual celebration” just one year later, when they made it a two-night event, and so began the steady growth of a festival that would put on display the culinary, musical and artisan tendencies of the Germans-from-Russia immigrants who founded Dakota Territory beginning in late 1874.
“In terms of the different aspects (of Schmeckfest), it’s hard to pick a favorite,” says Epp, “but I think it’s great that this community has this tribute to its heritage and the food and the arts … I think it’s all fantastic.”
In 1973 Schmeckfest moved from the Friday-Saturday tradition to a Thursday-Friday-Saturday event, and in 2005 it switched to a two-weekend, four-night format to accommodate a high demand for Friday and Saturday tickets.
But post-2005, challenges in finding volunteers to help execute and manage four days of Schmeckfest became an increasing concern and brought into question how sustainable the two-weekend structure was.
Then came four years ago.
It was March of 2020 and all who were involved with Schmeckfest were just a week away from the 61st consecutive commemoration of the celebration but were stopped in their tracks by coronavirus pandemic and Covid-19.
Schmeckfest as it had been known was ultimately canceled that year, and in 2021, and then again in 2022.
But hybrid events in the spring of each of those years — pick-up food sales, take-home meals and then a return of the Country Kitchen in 2022 — restated the demand for the ethnic foods that helped build Schmeckfest, and a new era of the event emerged.
In 2022, the Freeman Academy Board of Directors voted to dissolve the Freeman Academy Auxiliary (originally the Freeman Junior College Women’s Auxiliary) and develop an alternative leadership structure for Schmeckfest.
And the festival has moved back to two days.
“People have asked about going back to two weekends, and the biggest thing about that is the workforce that it takes,” said Epp. “Freeman is not the same demographic, and Freeman Academy is not the same demographic, as it was years ago.
“So, for the foreseeable future, this is the way it will be, but it’s been good.”
That is expected to be the case again this weekend.
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