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After a couple of years in "Hog Heaven," the Holy Rosary Festival will be going "Chicken-licious" for 2017.
"For the past couple of years it's been pork, but our main meal is chicken this year," says festival committee member Susan Deraney.
The festival, which gets underway on Sunday, Aug. 20 with a 10 a.m. morning mass on the church lawn, will also feature a variety of games, food vendors, live and silent auctions, and much more.
"The mass begins at 10 a.m., and it's outdoors, weather permitting," says Deraney. "Everything else starts at 11."
Past festivals have drawn between 400-500 people, and sometimes even more, she added.
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"This is the 45th year of our festival," she continued. "It's a community-wide event; everyone is invited."
Though many of the festival activities will center in and around the Parish Center and its adjacent parking lot, "it pretty much takes over the entire place," Deraney added.
Besides the chicken dinner with all the trimmings, there will be a variety of other food choices, from "taco in a bag" to hot dogs, pizza, root beer floats, pie and ice cream - "and new this year we have homemade chocolate chip cookies," said Deraney. "They'll be baked on site and served fresh from the oven.
"We'll also have popcorn, pop and water served throughout the grounds," she added.
There will also be a variety of live entertainment, from silent and live auctions to bingo, a cake walk, a "bouncy house" from Games to Go, and a farmer's market featuring locally grown fruits and vegetables, freshly baked breads, homemade jams and jellies, and even a touch of greenery. "Bergen's is donating some plants," Deraney said.
"We also just added a magician," she continued. "His name is Jeff Seifert, and he's from Stillwater. He reached out to us about doing something for the festival."
Seifert will be doing a couple of 20-minute stage shows, and will also be strolling throughout the grounds during the festival, doing small magic tricks for the crowd.
The live auction will be held outside the church, from noon to 3 p.m., and of course, the ever-popular dunk tank will be open throughout the festival as well.
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"We will have about six 'dunkees,' with each sitting in the tank for about half an hour," said Deraney. "They always hope for warm weather."
The "white elephant" room is another festival tradition, where guests can choose from everything from home decor and bedding to a variety of other household goods.
"It's like a big rummage sale," she said.
There will also be a variety of raffle drawings as well as a "win that wine" event where people can draw numbers to see if they win one of the donated bottles of wine.
"We started that (wine drawing) a couple of years ago, and it seems to be popular," said Deraney. "Also, new this year, we have an 'upcycling' booth, where church members have donated a variety of repurposed items for sale."
Ten percent of all proceeds from the festival will also be used to support church activities within the Detroit Lakes community, she added.
The festival will continue through 3 p.m. that day; all events will take place on the church grounds at 1043 Lake Ave. For more information, please call the church office at 218-847-1393 or Susan Deraney at 218-849-1856.
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