Right about now, hundreds of kids are getting their farm animals ready to show at the fair. Blue ribbons await those with the most healthy, finely groomed rabbits, cows, sheep, and myriad other semi-domesticated quadrupeds. The Walworth County Fair is an annual event of epic proportions, and if we’re lucky, and if our cards were played just right, we might even get Sha Na Na to come play at the grandstand on a Friday night, and if you ask politely, Bowzer may sign your ticket stub. Though I love fried things on sticks, I have not enjoyed so much as a tea cup ride since my disastrous Space Mountain experience in the winter of ’85, and the smell of farm animals leaves me in immediate need of a curing dose of lake air.
Fairs and festivals might not be my thing, but they might be yours, so if you must indulge your love of all things carnival you might as well do so with Geneva Lake serving as the big blue background. Enter Venetian Fest, playing live in Lake Geneva today, tomorrow, and Sunday. If the entrapments of carnival life suit you, then you should be making your way to the impeccable Lake Geneva lakefront this weekend for fun in our generous sun and a post-carnival splash in our healing lake. While you won’t find me at Venetian Fest this weekend, you will find the smooth jam stylings of one SLM Jam Band, among others.
You haven’t heard of them? Neither have I, but their website promises that they’re the #2 jam band in all of Wisconsin, so that’s something. But the nightly music isn’t really the whole story at Venetian, which runs now through Sunday night, even if the Tom Brusky Variety Polka Band is intent on knocking your knee high socks off on Sunday afternoon. I tried to reach his people to see if he’s any relation to Bill Brasky, a man who I once saw swim from Fontana to Lake Geneva in six and a half minutes, with strides so long they totaled just 11 during the entire trip, but his people were unavailable for comment. Also, I didn’t ask them. There is a craft fair this weekend at Library Park, if you find you like your carnivals with a side dose of Welcome To The Lake signs, available now with or without a lure chomping northern pike.
For all the events that might fill your time and your children’s imaginations on Friday and Saturday, the real carnival starts on Sunday afternoon. At 6 pm at the Geneva lakefront, the Wonder Lake Ski Team will have a chance to ski some real water, and put on a display that will most likely include jumps and other such maneuvers. I know I’ll clap extra loud if they hold the tow rope with one foot and no one in the line falls. That’s at 6, followed at dusk by the lit boat parade, a parade whose theme this year is Pirates of the Caribbean. I will also clap loudly if the Lady of the Lake shoots a mortar through the side of the Mail Boat, but that’s because I’m immature.
After the boat parade, Lake Geneva will launch their fireworks from the lakefront, so optimal viewing will be either from boat or from pretty much anywhere in the downtown portion of the city. It’ll be crowded at Library Park, so get their sort of early if you’re really a fan of such controlled explosions. This display will be the last fireworks display for the summer, with Fontana, Williams Bay, Driehaus, Grand Geneva, and Geneva National having long since lit their last fuse. The finality of the summer’s last fireworks bothers me, so I may not watch due to the ominous indicator of such a last hurrah. See you at the lake this weekend where summer is alive and well. If you see me on that little Laser sailboat, don’t swamp me.