Sheboygan Brat Days: Five things to do this weekend

SHEBOYGAN – Sheboygan’s annual homage to its favorite tubular meat is coming this weekend.

Brat Days runs 4 to 11:30 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Saturday at Kiwanis Park.

The festival is celebrating its 65th year this summer, but it’s not heading toward retirement. If anything, the youthful summer festival is as exuberant as a 21-year-old undergrad who’s just opened up his or her first Spotted Cow.

Here’s a checklist of things to do while soaking up Sheboygan’s rich and vibrant culinary culture:

Eat a brat — or two

OK, so this one’s kind of obvious … which is why it’s worth putting right at the top of the list.

Sheboygan’s annual shout-out to sausage is chock full of, well, sausage. But we don’t keep our brats on a pedestal here. We devour them. You should, too.

Eat a brat on a stick. Eat one on a hard roll.

Eat a brat with mustard (Dijon, of course) or ketchup. Eat them one at a time or doubled up.

Eat a brat with a burger. Eat it caked in cornbread.

Eat a brat on a pizza or in a taco shell.

We’re not judgmental here, though. If bratwursts aren’t your thing, Sheboygan’s got other grilled faire that may be more your fancy. (Really, though, you should try the brats.)

But whatever you do, just don’t step on a scale when you come home. You can start your diet again next week.

See a parade

Milwaukee’s Miller Park may have cornered the market on sausage races, but Sheboygan’s taken the same brat-centric concept and turned it into a festive, if leisurely, mile-long mosey.

For two whole hours — the parade is scheduled to run from 9 to 11 a.m. on Saturday — some of Sheboygan’s busiest downtown thoroughfares are set to be commandeered by sausage-themed floats.

The route kicks off at the corner of Eighth Street and Center Avenue and heads north before turning left on Michigan Avenue. It winds its way to the Workers Water Street Park along the river, just a short walk away from the Brat Days fair grounds.

(Don’t confuse the parade with the Brat Trot, a 4-mile run/walk that lets you guiltlessly gulp down bratwursts by promising you’ll burn off at least most of the calories. The Trot’s scheduled for Saturday morning and follows a trail from Kohler’s Sports Core facility to Kiwanis Park.)

Take the kids

Brat Days may be as exuberant as a 21-year-old, but the party isn’t just for 21-year-olds.

The event’s “family area” is kid-centric and is scheduled to stay open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. It features bounce houses, a mini-golf course, a bungee trampoline, a climbing wall and other activities.

For shorter periods of time — from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. — organizers also plan to offer a petting zoo and pony rides for kids.

A carnival area boasting amusement rides is also friendly for families.

Listen to music

Music helps the digestion process, right?

It’s an integral part of the Brat Days digestion process, anyway. After you’ve consumed artery-plumping loads of sausage, be sure to catch a show. There’ll be lots of them.

More than a dozen musical acts are poised to grace Kiwanis Park’s stages this weekend, with shows running through both days and turning the food-based festival into a mini-Summerfest of sorts. Or, think of it this way: It’s what Woodstock would have been had Johnsonville done the catering.

This year’s headline acts include Saliva and Quiet Riot.

Watch an eating contest

What would a bratwurst-dedicated festival be without an eating contest?

Actually, we found out last year, when Brat Days organizers forwent the popular annual rite of gastronomic passage after too few brave souls volunteered to stretch their stomachs’ limits.

Brat Days was still cool, with or without the feat of derring-do. But we can rejoice that the popular competitive pastime is coming back this weekend. Event organizers this year are planning to bring back the eating contest, promising Brat Days attendees a chance to gape in awe as participants try pushing as many sausages through their esophagi as physically possible.

And, for people with a competitive streak but a taste for something other than grilled meat, Brat Days still has you covered. Shortly after the brat-eating contest, event-goers can watch competitive eaters chow down to see who can eat the most ice cream cake.

Because nothing says "Sheboygan" quite like bratwursts and ice cream.