CADOTT — Wade Asher, Chippewa Valley Music Festivals general manager, was upbeat about how well the 2024 Wisconsin Farm Technology Days went last week, with large crowds showing up each day. The music festival grounds, along with the Close family farm, were the hosts of this year’s event.
Asher said that on Wednesday, traffic was backed up on Highway 27 both north and south of the exit to Highway S, where the event was held.
“We parked 5,000 cars in an hour,” Asher said Monday. “That’s never happened before in the history of the festival.”
Asher said he heard many positives from event-goers as well as from the vendors.
“I heard from multiple partners who said it was the best Farm Technology Days they ever had,” Asher said. “It was a lot of hard work to put it together. It was really cool to see the county come together.”
Charlie Walker, Chippewa County Economic Development Corporation executive director, said they are still tabulating attendance figures but he estimates it was at or close to 50,000 spectators between Tuesday and Thursday.
“Attendance was better than expected,” Walker said. “Thursday’s weather turned out better than expected. Families had a good time. It was a perfect blend of education, technology, and family events.”
Jerry Clark, UW-Extension agriculture agent for Chippewa, Eau Claire and Dunn counties, agreed that attendance matched or exceeded goals.
He noted there were wagons circling the parking lot and bringing people to the front gate, making the grounds more accessible.
“Tuesday and Wednesday were very well attended,” Clark said. “Overall, it was very well organized, with good field demonstrations and all our vendors were sold out. The field demonstrations — they got two good days out of it, knowing it was going to rain on Thursday.”
Clark stressed that having the music festival site was really helpful, with permanent roads in place, particularly when it rained hard Thursday morning. The rain stopped by mid-day Thursday and he said attendance that day topped expectations considering the forecast.
“Vendors were very happy with attendance,” Clark said. “They were happy with the visitors to their booths. This year was unique because we had that permanent site. It was crucial to the success.”
Clark noted that western Wisconsin has hosted three of the past four Wisconsin Farm Technology Days, with it in Eau Claire County in 2021 and Clark County in 2022. The 2025 show will be in Bear Creek in Outagamie County and the 2026 event will be in Stratford. Clark said he isn’t aware if it is slated to return to the area in the near future.
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