Sunflower lovers will want to mark July 25-27 on their schedule.
Bergsbaken Farms in eastern Shawano County will host its 10th and final Sunflower Festival at the farm, located at W2095 County Trunk E, Cecil. The farm is about 10 miles northeast of Bonduel and southeast of Cecil and will include live music, food, vendors, family activities and an opportunity to get up close and personal with 50 acres of sunflowers.
Lee Bergsbaken operates Bergsbaken farms with his brother, Dale.
The first Sunflower Festival in 2016 drew about 1,500 visitors and now draws at least 10,000.
“It’s amazing,” Lee Bergsbaken said. “The first year we did it, we figured we had about 1,500. We left a book out for people to put their names in and where they’re from. The next year, we figured we’d get a couple thousand. We guessed it was 9,000. We had a wheat field on the other side of the road and mowed down some corn to get to that field for parking.”
This year’s lineup includes live music all three days, including acoustic music from Bill Hurley and Mike Daley from noon to 4 p.m. July 25; bluegrass music from Biscuit Creek from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. July 26; and polka music from Pulaski’s The New Generation from noon to 4 p.m. July 27.
Wagon rides through the farm’s sunflower field will also be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.
“We have food and a vendors’ tent with very nice stuff,” Bergsbaken said. “We have bouncy houses, a corn pit, a lot of opportunities for picture taking.”
Visitors to this year’s festival will also find 50 acres of sunflowers that recently began blooming.
“We cut back a little bit this year,” Bergsbaken said. “We had some seed left from last year, and we wanted to get it used up. Normally, we’ll put 150 (acres) in.”
Although the flowers have not yet bloomed, this year’s crop looks good, according to Bergsbaken.
“It started out slow,” he said. “We had a cold May, and they didn’t come up as fast as they normally do. I’m pretty confident they’ll be blooming by the weekend of the 25th.”
Flowers are planted in mid-May to make sure they are in bloom for the festival.
“Sunflowers have a maturity date and also a bloom date,” Bergsbaken said. “From the time you plant until bloom should be 70 days. We usually go from the Wednesday before (the festival begins) and go back 70 days.”
Three walking trails will take visitors through the field to see the sunflowers up close.
“We have a short and a long trail and viewing platforms in the field where they can walk up and be above the flowers,” Bergsbaken said. “They’ll get to be about 5, 5 1/2 feet tall. We have another trail for wagon rides. There are a lot of waiting lines for wagon rides. We also have a spot where they can pick flowers. We charge $1 a blossom. They don’t plant them; they just put them in a vase.”
Festival visitors include children, their parents and grandparents.
“They come from everywhere,” Bergsbaken said. “We get people from every state and other countries. Last year, we had a couple here from China. I asked one lady where she was from and she said Orlando, Florida. She said, ‘We came up here just to see your festival. We got off the plane an hour ago and drove out here.’ She said they were going to Door County and Upper Michigan.”
There aren’t a lot of sunflower farms in northeastern Wisconsin, which helps make Bergsbaken Farms unique.
“There are a couple around that have a small festival, but nothing like ours,” Bergsbaken said. “I have some friends north of Escanaba (Michigan) that put on a sunflower festival. I got them to grow sunflowers, and now they have a festival pretty much like ours.”
Weather can have an effect on festival attendance, but the Bergsbaken have been lucky so far.
“We haven’t had rain for very many (festivals),” Bergsbaken said. “One year, we had about an inch of rain an hour and the parking lot was mud. We ended up pulling cars out. They kept driving in and it didn’t stop them. They were parking on the road and that gets dangerous. We had to do something different. Now, we have a 10-acre parking lot that roped out with signs. We have handicapped parking spots. We’ve learned over the years. Every parking lot has to have an in and an out. Otherwise, it gets boggled up.”
Sunflowers can grow anywhere, according to Bergsbaken.
“South Dakota grows more sunflowers than anywhere,” he said. “I have a friend that lives in western South Dakota. There are thousands and thousands of acres out there.”
Bergsbaken said his farm’s sunflowers are expected to be in bloom through most of August.
“We have one field that we always plant a week later so we extend the bloom,” he said. “People are welcome to come after the festival and walk. They can take pictures and walk through the flowers. We’ll have blooms for almost a month. After the festival, they can come anytime from sunup to sundown. We still put the donation boxes. They can put money in them if they want.”
The flowers eventually lose their bright yellow petals.
“They’ll turn brown and then black and the heads will tip,” Bergsbaken said. “We’ll harvest them in October.”
The flowers’ seeds are sold as bird seed.
“We clean them, bag them and sell them here on the farm,” Bergsbaken said. “We have a few gas stations that sell them, but everything else gets sold right here. We sell them in 50-pound and 30-pound bags. We sell thousands of bags. We have them for sale all year long.”
The family also grows corn, soybeans and pumpkins and sells sweet corn at three self-serve stands, but the farm is best-known for its sunflowers.
Saturday is usually the festival busiest day.
“They’re all pretty busy,” Bergsbaken said. “Friday is probably the least amount of people. We expect a pretty big crowd. One nice thing is you can bring your family and it’s not very expensive. We ask for a $3 entry fee a person. The food is pretty reasonable. There’s no other charge other than the food and the flowers.
“We want it to be affordable so it would not cost families a lot of money and they can have a good time,” he added. “The nice part is you don’t hear people arguing about anything. Everybody’s laughing and happy. People come and enjoy themselves.”
Sunflowers ready for visitors at festival
