ELLSWORTH — Each year, one of the most critical fundraisers in Ellsworth is the Cheese Curd Festival, which funds many local nonprofit organizations and allows them to continue to do great things for the community.

Last year, in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ellsworth Chamber of Commerce unveiled its Cheese Curd unFest, a drive-thru festival. Volunteers served the famous Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery hand-breaded cheese curds to a line of cars that didn’t diminish until the final curd hit the oil.

Faced to organize the large-scale event with health restrictions still in place at the time, the Ellsworth Drive-Thru Cheese Curd unFestival 2021 was unveiled.

It will be held Saturday, June 26 from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. The entrance to the drive-thru fest is via Wall Street, west of East End Park. Follow the signs – and the line of vehicles – to the Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery.

The Journal visited with Kim Beebe, executive team member for the Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce on how organizers and volunteers worked to make this year’s event bigger and better! Journal questions are in bold, with Beebe’s responses in plain text.

How is planning for the event going?

Planning for the event is going great. While the event may seem smaller in scale there is still just as much planning and a lot of moving parts. We’ve been meeting for months to plan every detail.

What new things can be expected this year?

Each year in addition to our deep-fried natural cheese curds and our Cinnamon Sugar Dessert Curds (a Cheese Curd Festival exclusive), we announce one new specialty flavor for the festival. Past flavors have included Jalapeno Bacon, Hot Buffalo, and Pizza. This year’s flavor is Dill Pickle! We’re pretty sure they’ve never been hand-battered and deep-fried until now and trust us, they are delicious!

For a drive-thru event such as this, our goal is to make the time guests spend in their vehicles to get their curds short and as fun as possible. Guests will be able to tune into CURD Radio in their cars to get the latest Cheese Curd Festival news. In keeping with the format of the festival we’ll have a drive-thru photo-spot to capture a photo of every car that comes through the event as a souvenir! We all want to be sure we remember the lengths we went to just to have fun during these unusual times, right?

There will be a street entertainer or two performing along the route. Don’t be surprised if you have the opportunity to play a little Curd Cab, our version of Cash Cab, to win cash and prizes. And there will be freebies, too! Every car, up to 1400, will receive a free bottle of Silver Springs Chipotle Ranch sauce.

We hope that after everyone enjoys their fill of cheese curds, they’ll take some time to visit some local Ellsworth businesses and show them some love, too.

Were you surprised by the support last year?

Yes, the outpouring of support was great to see. In 2020 the Cheese Curd Festival was initially canceled, and we returned all sponsorship dollars we had received. When we decided to go for it and move forward with a drive-thru event in the hopes of supporting our volunteer non-profits, we didn’t know what to expect. Sponsors came forward, and we clearly have the most loyal festival fans! We served 1,400 cars last year with the longest anyone waiting in line at just 10 minutes.

Has that crowd last year made you do things differently?

Last year’s drive-thru event went off so smoothly thanks to intense planning by the Cheese Curd Festival committee and the many volunteers who worked the event. It was a very hot and humid day and volunteers were masked, which made for uncomfortable conditions. But everyone took it in stride and worked hard to make sure it was a fun day for guests.

Our main concern during last year’s event was safely moving traffic. This year we worked with the Village of Ellsworth to close off Wall Street to be used solely for the festival’s drive-thru line during the event. We feel the rest of our systems were spot-on and we have the ability to serve even more cars safely and efficiently.

How much money was raised last year and where did it go?

Since so many events were canceled last year, our local nonprofits couldn’t count on their regular fundraisers. Our goal with last year’s drive-thru Cheese Curd Festival was to give back to our supporting non-profits at an amount as close to 2019 as possible. The Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce was able to distribute $18,035 back to the local non-profits who worked with us in 2019! That was a big win for us! This year our volunteers will once again be working the festival to earn funds for their nonprofits and any additional funds raised will support the Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce’s work in the community.

Cheese Curd Festival has become the main fundraiser for our community and several of its non-profit organizations. Not having an in-person Festival equates to the loss of $2.55 million of economic impact to the region, over $20,000 of annual support to local nonprofits, and a big hit to the Chamber's operating budget.

Will the traditional fest come back next year?

Yes! Last year at this time we could have never imagined having to do another drive-thru event. This would have been our 20th annual festival and we had planned a big celebration. However, earlier this year when we had to make the decision about the festival, the pandemic was still very much impacting the world. Planning an event that revolves around food and food experiences with the mandates and guidelines necessary during this time isn’t easy. Could we have done it? Probably. Would it have been the best experience for festival attendees? Probably not.

Bottom line, this event is a fundraiser – we couldn’t risk making the thousands of dollars in deposits to secure infrastructure and entertainment, only to lose it all if we had to cancel. And of course, there’s nothing worth risking the health of our volunteers, guests, and the community. We know the decision disappointed many—from Cheese Curd Festival guests to festival vendors. We hope they will stick with us and drive-thru this year and then take part in the big event in 2022!