Luxembourg Fest will include parade, music, Mass and wine tasting
From mustreipen to music to a parade featuring a procession of sheep, all things Luxembourgish will be celebrated during Luxembourg Fest of America and Luxembourg Heritage Weekend in Belgium.
Luxembourg Fest will kick off Saturday, Aug. 11, with the Green Heart 5K Run and Walk at 7:30 a.m. at Community Park.
The registration fee, which includes a T-shirt, is $15 per person with a family fee of $40 for those who walk.
At 10 a.m. Saturday, sheep herded by residents dressed in traditional Luxembourg garb will lead off the parade, which will include the Cedar Grove-Belgium High School marching band, the Luxembourg Fun Brass Band, fire equipment and antique cars and farm equipment. The parade will begin on the west end of Main Street and end at Community Park, where music, food and refreshments will be available from noon to 4 p.m.
A mustreipen-eating contest will be held at noon. Mustreipen, also called treipen, is a Luxembourg blood sausage. Contestants will have one minute to eat as much sausage as they can.
The Luxembourg Fun Brass Band will perform in the park from 12:30 to 4 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.
A wine and cremant (champagne) tasting with Linster will be held from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Luxembourg American Cultural Center, 100 Peter Thein Ave. Admission to the center is $7.
An art and craft fair will be held both days.
Honored family exhibits will be on display from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in the exhibit hall. The families are Antoine, Arendt, Bares, Ellenbecker, Flammang, Herff, Homan, Ludowise, Ludowisi, Ludowissy and Schommer.
Also in the exhibit hall, area residents are asked to identify photographs from the collection of Vern Arendt, Ozaukee Press photographer for more than 60 years. The photographs will be available from 1 to 3 p.m. both days in the exhibit hall.
Noted Luxembourg-American author Fausto Gardini will sign copies of his books “The American Aunt: U.S. Doughboys and Damsels from Luxembourg,” which chronicles 200 marriages between American soldiers and Luxembourg women following World War I, and “Luxembourg on My Mind,” volumes one and two. He will be in the exhibit hall from 1 to 3 p.m. both days.
At the French and German translation booth in the park, people can have documents and letters in those languages translated into English. The booth will be open from 1 to 3 p.m. both days.
A Green Heart Gala dinner and auction will begin at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Prairie Conference Center of West Bend Mutual Insurance Co. in West Bend. Reservations are required.
Festivities will begin Sunday with an outdoor Mass at 10 a.m. Father Charles Wester will officiate.
The Luxembourg Fest duke and duchess, Jim and Jan Plier Bares of Merrill will be crowned at 11:15 a.m.
Food stands featuring mustreipen, country sausage, fried potatoes, kuchens, pies and other desserts will be open from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
The Belgium Fire Department will give fire truck rides from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. both days.
The documentary film “Hemecht: Luxembourgers Making a Home in Winona County, Minnesota” will be shown at the cultural center Saturday and Sunday.
More information is available at www.luxamculturalsociety.org or by calling the center at (262) 476-5086.
Image Information: PREPARING FOR A CULINARY conference Friday, Aug. 10, featuring Luxembourg’s top chef Lea Linster at the Belgium House Restaurant were Kevin Wester, executive director of the Luxembourg American Cultural Society, Jennifer Beck, an intern from the Luxembourg Hotel Management School, and Paul Babin, an intern from Clark University in Worcester, Mass. The interns will help with Luxembourg Fest events this weekend. Photo by Sam Arendt
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