Okawville Heritage Days Festival Coming Up June 9 And 10

Be Part of the fun and discover the heritage of this area

“Come join us” on June 9th and 10th in celebrating 36 years of this annual event. Heritage Days, hosted by the Heritage House Museum Association of Okawville, Illinois, will be sure to take you back to a quieter time and give visitors a glimpse of the past. This family event will delight folks of all ages and there is no admission. Many of this festival’s time-honored activities will be repeated.
Younger folks will enjoy learning how to churn butter, knead bread or make hand cranked ice cream. These are just a few of the hands-on crafts everyone can enjoy. Best of all, you can sample eating all of it! “Children” of all ages can try their luck at a variety of games from the past including “backyard bowling”. This festival is held at the Schlosser Museum property at 114 W. Walnut St. in Okawville, Illinois. Times are 10:00 to 5:00 both days.
3rd Annual Okawville Soda Festival will be back this year. The Okawville Soda Festival will help recall the era not that long ago when not only Okawville, but nearly every small town had its own “Sodie Factory”!
The Okawville Soda Festival will be featuring 16 varieties of old-fashioned glass bottle soda, most made with pure cane sugar like in the past. Some of the flavors featured this year are Excel Bottling’s Apple Pie and Strawberry Lemonade, Fritz’s Root-beer, Pumpkin spice and Coffee Cola, Stewarts Orange N’cream, Caruso’s Dark Vanilla Cream and Maraschino Cherry, Druthers Black Cow, Filberts Pineapple, Nehi Peach, Sioux Sarsaparilla and Zuber CocoFizz.
Sounds refreshing and tasty on a warm summer day! Come out and vote for your favorite!
A display of old soda bottles and soda advertising items will also be displayed and some will also be for sale.
We will feature again this year– a farmer’s market, country store, book fair, flea market, vendor and craft shows and town wide yard sales at residences and at the festival site. Come and browse the items that will be displayed. Kids love the crafts and games-including “Turtle Races” held on both afternoons. Some yard sales will begin on Friday morning (call for details-243-5291).
If you prefer a little less action, sit back and enjoy the outdoor entertainment.
Beginning at 11am on Saturday, June 9- The popular crowd pleasing “SOUL SHAKE” band will begin a lively afternoon performance of popular music including country, rock, soul, Rythm and Blues, oldies and easy listening–”Blended to Perfection”.
Sunday morning, June 10, at 10:30 – a new group called “Heart Strings” takes the stage. Just fine spiritual and gospel songs for summer Sunday listening.
Following at 11:30 on Sunday- The Venedy Band will play till 1:30pm. This is a lively town band with lots of great music that all festival folks will truly enjoy.
Be sure to bring along your appetite as you will want to sample the wonderful homemade food. Tasty items include- apple wood smoked pulled pork, smoked turkey breast, bratwurst, corn-on-the -cob, German style potato salad, buttered noodles (spatzle) and homemade pies and cakes- just to name a few! A smoked pork chop dinner will be served on Sunday along with traditional German style potato pancakes and homemade apple-butter. New this year will be German style pretzels with dipping sauce.
The food stand will be open for outside dining or carry-outs beginning Friday afternoon and evening. A breakfast will be served beginning at 7am on Saturday morning. The luncheon menu will be available beginning at 9:30 am on both Saturday and Sunday, until 5pm.
Have lunch after church and don’t forget to stay for the “Heritage House Auction Auction”. Dan Schuette will get the bidding under way with his never ending humor. These attractions promise to be an afternoon of entertainment at its best. Plan now to come out and help support Heritage House Museum organization and maintain these historic area attractions. Tours of the historic buildings will be available both days.
For more information, contact Okawville Tourism and Chamber of Commerce office at – 618-243-5694 or mail to tourokaw@606front.net.