Let's Get Out There: Chislic Festival gives Sioux Falls a chance to help rural communities

I lived in Canistota for five years, in a nearly invisible town 30-ish miles west of Sioux Falls.

In this charming rural community, the stop signs are scarce and the lone gas station across from the greasy bar is also a grocery store, a pizza delivery, an ice cream parlor, a pharmacy and a casino. The retirement home welcomes trick-or-treaters every October, the lifeguards lather sunscreen onto all the elementary kids during their 10-minute pool breaks in mid-summer, and the football field every fall is lined with the entire population, which stagnates at about 600 neighbors, all of whom you know by heart.

For Sioux Falls residents who only know paved roads and stoplights, this is alluring. Families will hop in the car for dinner at the Hartford Steakhouse, broasted chicken at The Gulch in Garretson or Rocky Mountain oysters at Meridian Corner off Highway 81. Every August, upward of a whopping estimated 60,000-100,000 visitors will ride a tractor shuttle that escorts them into the beloved Turner County Fair in Parker. They come back year after year for Bingo, carnival rides, rodeos, 4-H shows, pies from community churches and a chance to hold a bunny.

This weekend, more than 8,000 visitors will descend into small-town Freeman, where they will come hungry for skewered lamb and saltines at the seventh annual South Dakota Chislic Festival. There will be a road race, disc golf and bean bag tournaments, live music, craft booths and food trucks to help chase down the chislic.

Festival president Andrea Baer says that most attendees come from the Sioux Falls, Yankton and Mitchell areas. But they also host volunteers from California, tourists from the East Coast and a family from Canada that simply likes to attend meat festivals.

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In southeastern South Dakota, Sioux Falls is our matriarch, the thriving “metropolis” with boundless opportunity, resources, restaurants and a bike trail for miles. But perhaps the most endearing appeal here is the number of small towns that surround it. We have incredible concerts at the Levitt and youth tournaments alone that bring in thousands of families in a single weekend, but our rural neighbors have street dances, tractor pulls and a less obscure view of the sunset. They probably make more time to watch the sunset, too.

South Dakota knows this. More than half of our state counties are considered rural, some of which are even considered “frontier”: A population of around a dozen residents or less (That does not include livestock). But Sioux Falls’ countryside is not just a novelty, it’s also families and city councils with equal ambitions to beautify their downtowns, support their schools, and retain their populations.

Dakota Resources is a program-based financial institution in South Dakota that provides both monetary and leadership support for communities that are under-served or working in isolation to keep their small towns prosperous. Regional foundations also offer grants to entrepreneurs who strive to solve their hometown hardships. These resource programs not only strengthen our rural communities, they validate the need for us to show up for them.

Go for the chislic, then maybe swing by the grocery store, pick up stamps at the post office or take your kids to the pool, too.

Read more about the festival! Check out the Saturday schedule and directions to the event.

Baer says it’s an honor to host visitors in her community and to share their revered traditions. In Freeman, chislic isn't just on the table when company in town. It is enjoyed with family all year long.

"The fun of the festival was thinking deeply about the connections of food, the heritage, and what chislic means to our area and its people," says festival founder Josh Hofer. "The power of our story has been knowing how to tell it."

Baer says the festival's Board of Directors works hard to bring in new vendors, volunteers and guests every year. “On the day of the festival, everybody here is family!"

Vice president Abby Streyle also said last year that “the event brings such pride” to their community.

It’s a privilege for any town of any size to host a guest. Just like the neighbor who wants you to come over for her coffee cake on a Sunday afternoon, so, too, does a small-town summer shindig want you to see that they are thriving, too.

We are so much more than Sioux Falls! Let’s get out there.

The South Dakota Chislic Festival will be 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Prairie Arboretum in Freeman.

Let's Get Out There is a weekly column from Argus Leader's trending reporter, Angela George, who highlights local culture, entertainment, people and events.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Let's Get Out There: Chislic Festival gives Sioux Falls a chance to help rural communities