HYLO - Taking in a parade at a summer fair, watching people engage in a fun game of “chicken poop” bingo, or running around an arena trying to catch a pig are part of a great day of fun.
These activities and more will be on offer at the annual Hylo Harvest Days celebration, which takes place this year from Aug. 23-24.
Yvonne Zevola, the treasurer for the Hylo-Venice Recreation and Agricultural Society, said Harvest Days – which is held at the end of the summer just before the arrival of autumn – is the agricultural component the organization needs to provide each year for the community to be an active ag society.
“Harvest Days brings community members together and provides a free (mostly) event for anyone who wants to participate,” she told Lakeland This Week. “We also have a horticulture component that allows community members to showcase their wares.”
The 2024 Hylo Harvest Days begins on the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 23 with the traditional horticultural show, followed by dinner and a movie in the park.
Saturday’s schedule of events gets underway with a pancake breakfast followed by a brisket cookoff contest where entrants will battle it out to see who can cook the best brisket to win prizes.
The Harvest Days parade will start just after noon, kicking off an afternoon full of fun activities that includes kids’ entertainment, prize draws, and the Hylo King and Queen Contest, a pig catching competition. Concessions will be on site and the event will also host a beer garden. The day will also feature that game of “chicken poop bingo.” For the uninitiated, the rules of the game are simple and straightforward; players select numbers that correspond with tiles on a playing board. If the chicken who’s walking around the board happens to “do their business” on a particular tile, whoever has chosen that tile wins.
Hylo Harvest Days has been a staple of the community for many years. The popular two-day festival initially took place in local fields where a harvest from times past was re-enacted.
“It used to entail a full harvest with the old-style equipment and the food was baked in a wood oven with soup and then a BBQ steak dinner,” Zevola said.
Zevola says in recent years, although much of the ‘farm-based’ activities have disappeared from the busy days, the number of visitors remains high. She estimates 500 or more or will spend time in the community for the events.
For more information about 2024 Hylo Harvest Days, or to join the parade or brisket cookoff contact Jocelyn at (780) 404-9163 or Sylvia - (780) 623-7807 or Yvonne (780)623-9756. The deadline to get into the brisket cookoff was Aug. 10.
