We’re nearing the end of summer, which means we’re also nearing the end of rural small towns’ community festival season. (This season never really ends, but it does slow down quite a bit from September to May.)

I spend a lot of my time in the summer writing about these festivals, and I think they’re an underrated source of summer fun, especially for people who don’t mind their summer events off the beaten path or outside the box. I haven’t been to as many as I’d like, but here are a few aspects that make each of these festivals notable in their own way:

Free food:
Kool-Aid Days, Hastings: One of the area’s largest festivals, and certainly one of its most colorful, too. Kool-Aid Days was held last weekend, and they reported that 32,000 showed up, many of whom drank all the Kool-Aid they could drink for free (with purchase of a mug) at the World’s Largest Kool-Aid Stand. Fourteen flavors of goodness were there, with only one downside: For the first time ever, the stand ran out of Kool-Aid this year.

Popcorn Days, North Loup: Coming up next weekend, it’s all the popcorn you can eat for free. The festival in the 324-person Valley County town is also the area’s longest continuously running festival, at 108 years this year. That’s more popcorn than I can comprehend.

History:
Grover Cleveland Alexander Days, St. Paul: Named for the most famous athlete in Central Nebraska history, baseball Hall of Famer (and Elba native) Grover Cleveland “Ol’ Pete” Alexander, GCA Days is a trip through Nebraska baseball history every year. The event’s parade always has a former Nebraska major leaguer as grand marshal, and the Museum of Nebraska Major League Baseball uses the weekend each July as an opportunity to unveil its newest exhibits.

Annevar, Ravenna: The annual Annevar (I’ll save you the time–it’s Ravenna spelled backward) festival in June includes a focus on history from the Historical Society of Ravenna. I especially enjoyed this year’s feature on John Pesek, who might give Tom Rathman a run for his money as Central Nebraska’s most famous professional athlete (non-baseball division, of course).

Sheer lunacy:
Nebraska’s Big Rodeo, Burwell: The people who choose to ride those bulls and broncos may be nuts, but it’s certainly not lunacy to attend. The name isn’t lying — this event is among Nebraska’s biggest rodeos, if not its biggest, with some 15,000 people attending the last week of July. It’s the event Burwell hangs its wide-brimmed hat on.

Polar Bear Dip, Cedar Rapids: If you want to participate in lunacy yourself, head to the icy Cedar River in southwest Boone County during February for Cedar Rapids’ Polar Bear Dip, an annual tradition since 2005. Why would anyone subject themselves to this, you ask? Well, it’s free to dip, but you have to pay to watch. It’s an exercise in frugality, see — and there’s a nice, warm chili feed afterwards to warm you back up.