BUTTERNUT — The biggest little three-day fair around will celebrate its 66th year when the Butternut Pioneer Days event runs from July 26-28.
“Weather permitting, it should be a good year,” said Glenn Wegner, a member of the Pioneer Days committee. “We've been pretty lucky the last couple of years with the weather.”
There are several buildings at Butternut Park and a tent was added a few years ago to shelter from the sun and weather, he said. The new beer garden also has a new and extended roof.
“The rain won't hurt us as bad anymore,” Wegner said. “It will not shut down the fair.”
Pioneer Days has such variety that it attracts people who come to attend a specific event along with people who just want to try out everything, Wegner said. The annual event is so integral to the community that it coincides with family and class reunions and others who come home to play in the tournaments. This is incredible, given all the other summer events going on, he said.
“It might be the only time of year they ever get back to Butternut,” Wegner said. “It’s just a fun atmosphere for families. There's stuff to do from the little kids all the way up to the adults.”
EXHIBITS AND VENDORS
This year there is no charge for the arts and crafts tables, he said. The tables will be available to vendors on Saturday morning through early afternoon.
“If you're a crafter and you want to be there, just come in there Saturday morning as early as you want and find a spot and set up,” Wegner said.
The Skullery Exhibition by Jeff Gustafson and the Schloer Farm Petting Zoo are returning. Both have had very receptive results with kids and adults.
K+M Rides and Amusements returns to operate Midway. There is a $35 wristband special for all three days, or purchase one-day wristbands for $10 on Friday night, $20 all day Saturday, and $10 Sunday.
“We have some different rides this year,” Wegner said.
It’s difficult for Pioneer Days to get all the requested rides they want because there are many other county fairs going on at this time of year, he said. There should be two older kid rides, one younger kids ride and a bouncy house for the little kids.
FOOD
There are new food vendors this year along with the old favorites.
Returning are Double D's Pizza, Lola’s Lunchbox, Kettle Corn Castle, and Bobber’s on Butternut Lake will have an ice cream and treats stand.
Lamoureux Concessions from Hayward is new.
“That will be more of your traditional carnival food, your corndogs, cheese curds and deep fried onions,” Wegner said.
Fat Daddy’s will have street tacos.
“That should really go over well,” he said. “That is something we haven’t had.”
Simply Bar-B-Que will be making their first appearance at the festival. The Mellen based food truck specializes in ribs and pulled pork that are slow cooked over smoke, according to their website.
Butternut High School will have the pavilion kitchen to sell food as their annual fundraiser.
“There's a wonderful variety of food this year, almost anything you can think of,” Wegner said.
SPORTS
Exciting new developments this year include the addition of a slow pitch men’s and fastpitch women’s softball games in addition to the annual men’s softball tournament. There was enough time to squeeze in two Friday night games for fun as old-timers and alumni players from all area teams.
“This started as an alumni game, but not just for Butternut teams,” Wegner said. “It's the area alumni and anybody's welcome to play. We've got players down to our youth program. Some of the girls are gonna fill in with alumni reaching over age 60.”
Wegner is the high school girls softball coach and so he knows a lot of the players, past and present. That networking makes it possible to field two teams in a short time.
“I know a lot of people are going to show up last-minute,” he said. “They can just play an inning, get an at-bat, whatever they want to do. We'll have enough to kind of fill in. So it's just kind of an exhibition for fun, just like the old-timers.”
The men’s softball tournament over the weekend is more competitive but just as entertaining softball with family teams and other teams that have competed for decades, Wegner said. Having a slow pitch softball tournament on a field with baseball dimensions also makes for more exciting games.
“The bases are the same but the outfield is expansive and deep,”Wegner said. “It's not your traditional softball game where you have to limit the home runs. You see a lot more triples and inside the parkers and you’ve just have to cover a lot of ground out there and so it can be a little intimidating.”
The Beach Volleyball Tournament is now in its second year after it was added by high demand, Wegner said. There were more teams wanting to play that could at the first tournament and so a second court was added this year for the Saturday event.
“We had such a good turnout that we were turning teams away at the end,” Wegner said of last year. “So volleyball will be bigger.”
The volleyball tournament has two brackets, one 18-and-under co-ed tournament for high school age kids, and an 18-and-over bracket for adults out of high school, according to tournament organizer Cindy Pritzl. Winners of the 18-and-under tournament will receive a T-shirt, and the 18-and-over winners receive half of the entry fees.
The Wisconsin Arm Wrestling Tournament will be held Friday evening. The Wisconsin Horseshoe Pitchers Association sanctioned tournament will be held Saturday.
“It's a state sanctioned event so if you want to qualify for state you can come to this one and whatever your place will enter you into the state competitions,” Wegner said.
The Lake States Mud Racers event runs from 1-5 p.m. Saturday. The Horse Pull Competition follows suit from 1-5 p.m. Sunday.
MUSIC
As for contemporary music, the plan is to keep going with a good thing. The outdoor stage will host Blame it on Waylon on Friday night. On Saturday, Iron Mule will start the music in the late afternoon, and after a break for the Pioneer Queen Coronation at 7:30 p.m., the Spicy Tie Band will take the stage and play as the fireworks start at dusk.
“People want to see the big name bands at night,” Wegner said.
The Pioneer Days Queen Coronation will be held between the Friday night bands at 7:30 p.m. The music should continue around dusk when the fireworks display begins.
Butternut Fire Department is handling the fireworks and also contributes a lot of the costs through their own fundraising, Wegner said.
“Their display in the last few years has been really, really good,” he said. Definitely worth watching and you can watch from anywhere on the grounds. Most people will line up around the outfield fence and the first base fence and in that area.”
The Sunday Polka in the Pavilion event was in doubt until recently, he said. When Neil Zunker, who played the festival for years with his Wausau band, retired with the 2023 Pioneer Days as his last gig, Wegner identified three different polka bands that were scheduled and then unscheduled for conflicts
Butternut accordionist George Faltinoski recommended some of the bands and came through again with another last minute replacement, The Jerry Peterson Band, that will perform classic country as well as a little bit of polka on Sunday.
PARADE
Organizations, businesses and people who are still considering whether to take part in the parade, there is no registration required, Wegner said. All parade participants just show up at Butternut High School no later than 11:30 a.m. on July 28.
Bob and Diane Peterson are the 2024 Butternut Pioneer Days Parade Marshalls.
Bob Peterson was a village trustee for more than 20 years and decided not to seek another term, Wegner said. Peterson is also retired from the Park Falls paper mill where he worked for many years.
It takes an entire community to make Pioneer Days a great event, he said. The Pioneer Day Committee is made up of eight nonprofit groups, to include the Butternut Park Association, Butternut Area Business Alliance, Butternut Fire Department, the Butternut Fair, American Legion Post 272, the Butternut Lions Club, the Trail Midgets ATV Club, Butternut Knights of Columbus.
It takes dedicated people from these organizations to make the festival run successfully, he said. The volunteers set everything up and handle everything from ordering the water, soda and beer and port-a-potties and getting the food stands all set up where they need to go and doing the daily and nightly cleanup.
“Each morning you’ve got to have cleanups, during the day you’ve got to have cleanups,” he said. “They make sure that everybody's stocked, that they’ve got all the change they need. So it's a big task.
There are a few people who rotate on and off of the planning committee but the core group has been together since the inception of the committee, he said. This has helped the festival to evolve and grow without much trouble because each member knows what they need to do and how to assist anyone else.
“Everybody's got their own little niche and handles certain things, and that makes it easier every year,” he said.
Without festival sponsors the event would not succeed, he said. The major sponsors this year include Forward Bank, Ashland County Town Insurance Company, Butternut Area Business Alliance, Northwoods Community Credit Union, Smart Plumbing & Heating, Greg Wagner Plumbing, Weather Shield Windows and Doors,Pieper Electric, and Signature Signs & Graphics.
For more information on Pioneer Days, visit butternutwi.com.
66th ANNUAL PIONEER DAYS
JULY 26-28, 2024
BUTTERNUT, WISCONSIN
FRIDAY
6 p.m., Women's Fastpitch Softball Game
7:15 p.m., John "Stick" Furtak Old Timers Softball Game
6 to 10 p.m., Wisconsin Arm Wrestling Tournament
6 to 10 p.m., K+M Rides and Amusements
Wristband specials: $10 Friday night, or $35 for the entire weekend.
8 p.m. to 12 a.m., Blame it on Waylon band on the outdoor stage.
SATURDAY
8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Arts and Crafts Vendors
8 a.m., Men's Slowpitch Softball Tournament (all day)
9 a.m., Beach Volleyball Tournament (call 715-769-3113 to register team)
9 a.m. to 5 p.m., WHPA Sanctioned Horseshoe Tournament
10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Skullery exhibition by Jeff Gustafson
11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Schloer Farm Petting Zoo
11 a.m., Northwoods Community Credit Union Sawdust Dig
12 to 10 p.m., K+M Rides and Amusements - Wristbands $20 for Saturday
1 to 5 p.m., Lake States Mud Racers Sanctioned Race
4:30 to 7:30 p.m., Iron Mule band on the outdoor stage
7:30 p.m., Pioneer Queen Coronation on the outdoor stage
8:30 p.m. to 12 a.m., Spicy Tie Band on the outdoor stage
Giant Fireworks DIsplay at dusk
SUNDAY
8 a.m., Men's Slowpitch Softball Tournament
12 p.m., Giant Parade, downtown
1 to 5 p.m., K+M Rides and Amusements: Wristbands $10 for Sunday
1 to 5 p.m., Classic Country and Polka in the Pavilion by the Jerry Peterson Band.
1 to 5 p.m., Horsepull Competition
1 to 5 p.m., Cornhole Toss Tournament (same day sign up)
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