Dorchester Days set to fully return

By Kevin O’Brien

Dorchester Days will be returning to mostly normal this year after a scaledback version of the event was held last summer due to COVID-19.

This year’s festival will see the return of carnival rides, a parade, and other activities that people expect to see, according to Julie Goldschmidt, a member of the village board who attended two recent meetings of the Dorchester Days committee.

The National Truck Pulling Association will not be holding its annual tractor pull on Saturday night, she said, but there will be truck pulls.

There will also be no pulls on Sunday, but the parade will return and car show will be held as usual.

Event organizers also plan on spending more money on live music this year, with an additional band scheduled to perform, she said.

The carnival rides will also be opening a night earlier, on Thursday, and if a certain number of wristbands are sold ahead of time, there will be a price discount, Goldschmidt said.

The popular chicken dinner is up in the air right now because the woman who normally oversees the dinner is unavailable that weekend.

“We’re scrambling to find people to take that up, because we really want to have that,” she said. “We don’t want to lose it. We had to nix it last year because of COVID.”

Last year’s Dorchester Days had fewer of the normal activities due to the threat of COVID transmission at large gatherings.

A tractor pull with two local farm classes was still held Saturday night, and the The Badger State Dirt Flingers held hold garden tractor pulls on Friday The event also featured live music on Friday and Saturday night, a cornhole tournament on Saturday, and the annual Father’s Day car, truck and antique show on Sunday. A food stand and beer tent were also run all three days last summer.