5 Funky American Festivals
America loves a party. We found enough funky festivals and eccentric events across the country to fill a lifetime with fun.
from Reader's Digest
Courtesy Chandler Chamber of Commerce
Ostrich Festival
Chandler, Arizona
At this annual bash celebrating the southern Arizona tradition of ostrich ranching, revelers can cheer on their preferred bird during a 50-minute ostrich race and then down an ostrich burger-presumably one not made of the losers.
PLUS:
The Best Ballpark Food
7 Weirdest Ice Cream Flavors
Courtesy Charles Bartholomew/Punkin Chunkin Association
World Championship Punkin Chunkin
Bridgeville, Delaware
How far can you chunk a pumpkin? Each November, competitors in this contest use catapults, centrifugal spinners, and other homemade contraptions to launch an eight- to ten-pound pumpkin as far as mechanically possible. The record: 4,483.51 feet.
PLUS:
The Best Ballpark Food
7 Weirdest Ice Cream Flavors
Photo by Johanna Goderre Jones/KineticBaltimore.com
Kinetic Sculpture Race
Baltimore, Maryland
Is it art-or transportation? Both, it turns out, when human-powered sculptures cross sea, mud, and sand in an eight-hour, 15-mile race along the city’s Inner Harbor each May. Past award winners have included two Elvis impersonators in a car nicknamed Hunk a Hunk of Burnin’ Junk.
PLUS:
The Best Ballpark Food
7 Weirdest Ice Cream Flavors
Courtesy Andrew Turnbull
Sputnikfest
Manitowoc, Wisconsin
In September 1962, a chunk of glowing debris from Sputnik 4-one of the first Earth-orbiting satellites, launched by the Soviet Union-fell from the sky onto a street in downtown Manitowoc. The Russians reclaimed the piece, but the town hosts an annual festival to commemorate its arrival. Highlights: a Miss Space Debris contest-costumes made out of aluminum foil are common-and an Artta This World art fair.
PLUS:
The Best Ballpark Food
7 Weirdest Ice Cream Flavors
Courtesy Nederland Area Chamber of Commerce
Frozen Dead Guy Days
Nederland, Colorado
When Grandpa Bredo Morstoel died in 1989, his cryogenically minded family packed him in dry ice and placed him in a shed to await a cure for death. This annual March party honors him with a hearse parade, kid coffin races, and frozen turkey bowling.
PLUS:
The Best Ballpark Food
7 Weirdest Ice Cream Flavors
