South Dakota town hosts third annual chislic festival

FREEMAN, S.D. (KELO) — Chislic might just be skewered pieces of meat, but it’s still the official food of the state. This festival celebrates that food.

“The heart of the chislic circle was in this area. I mean you know going from Kaylor to Menno to Hurley, Marion, Bridgewater, Emery, and Freeman’s kind of in the circle of it all,” Jay Hofer, Chislic Festival Board President said.

“This is amazing. This is better than I thought it was going to be. I’m like—I love chislic, my sister used to live here in Freeman, and I used to come here to get chislic back in the day. And so to be able to come here and actually have a chislic fest, this is awesome,” attendee Lana Waters said.

The festival also represents the joint work to make it happen.

“What’s going on here today is months and months of planning and hard work and effort and commitment from a group of people who just really believed in this. And you can see that in the faces of the people who are having a good time. I mean everybody’s smiling. Everybody is having a good time,” attendee Jeremy Waltner said.

In Freeman, you could feel community.

“Watching the people enjoy themselves—there’s people on their lawn chairs, you know families laying out on the blankets, and just enjoying the music, eating some chislic, enjoying some beverages. So that’s the best part really, people just taking it all in and enjoying it—enjoying the day that a lot of people put in for,” Hofer said.

https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/south-dakota-news/south-dakota-town-hosts-third-annual-chislic-festival/amp/