It’s the chocolate capital of the Great Lakes region: the Nestle Chocolate Company plant in Burlington, Wisconsin, puts out over 100 million pounds of the stuff every year, in the form of Crunch bars, milk chocolate bars, 100 Grand bars, Oh Henry! bars, Raisinets, Goobers, Nestle Quik, cocoa mix, and Toll House morsels, lots and lots of Toll House morsels–81,000 a minute, 120,000 pounds of them a day. Burlington merits the appellation “Chocolate City USA” as much as Hershey, Pennsylvania, some people might say. But not the people at Hershey Foods, who are currently suing the city of Burlington for trademark infringement.
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Traditionally held the weekend after Mother’s Day (in 1991, it’s scheduled for May 17 through 19), the festival runs Friday night through Sunday evening, with a big parade on Sunday afternoon. Held in parks throughout Burlington, it offers a wide assortment of activity: storytellers, clowns, and a petting zoo for children; a dozen bands providing all kinds of music, from oompah to classical to several permutations of rock; a lot of food, mostly of the brats-and-burgers variety; and–of course–a veritable mountain of chocolate.
This year’s festival, jinxed by cold, wet weather, still saw more than $25,000 in chocolate sold. In 1989 close to 100,000 people attended, says festival chairman Kurt Ludwig. (And all this without a single beer concession. “This is a nonalcoholic, family-type activity,” Ludwig notes. “We decided long ago that chocolate and beer don’t mix.”)
They also object to the logo. “We have a representation of a chocolate morsel in our logo, which Nestle makes by the billions here every year, and Hershey is claiming that it looks like a chocolate kiss,” says David Wright, the festival’s publicity director, who in his regular life sells ads for the Burlington Standard Press. “We’re not selling a candy bar–just a city festival.”
Meanwhile, planning is in progress for the 1991 Chocolate City USA Festival, expected to be the grandest yet, with still more bands, more activities, and most important more chocolate. “We’ve got plenty of real food available,” says Tom Lebak. “But, you know, people don’t seem to care so much about that. People always seem to go for the chocolate.”
