Popcorn fest draws crowds in Valpo
41st year of event that is all about the numbers
For many people in Valparaiso who participate in and attend the Popcorn Festival, the annual event — a nod to homegrown icon Orville Redenbacher — is all about the numbers.
How many bags of popcorn can vendors fill up for the passing crowds? How many of them can fill the downtown and draw in snackers and shoppers? How
many years have passed since guests last came to the festival?
Those questions all revolved around the numbers for organizers and attendees, as the annual festival returned Saturday, taking over the central part of the city for a full day and offering festivalgoers live music, a kids area and a parade featuring community groups, first responders and politicians.
Dale Kroeger, a scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 904, oversaw a busy crew who were filling red-andwhite-striped paper bags with popcorn.
The troop’s booth, at the corner of Lincolnway and Franklin on the courthouse square, was located within the festival’s crowded hub — a prime spot they’ve had for at least the past eight years, Kroeger said.
“We’re too busy filling the bags to count them, e s p e c i a l l y wh e n the weather is good,” he said.
As the parade kicked off at 10 a.m., he quickly checked his inventory.
“We’ve already gone through 2,000 bags of popcorn, and we’ve asked for more,” Kroeger said.
The troop, based at Christ Lutheran Church, receives a stipend from Valparaiso Events, which organizes the festival each year, for giving away the popcorn, Kroeger said. A group around the corner popped the popcorn and brought it to the booth to be loaded into the bags from two purple kiddie pools that sat on a table.
Tina St. Aubin, executive director of Valparaiso Events, said the festival, which marked its 41st year, included 103 parade entries and 250 food and craft vendors. She estimated that 50,000 were expected to attend.
The weather with blue skies and temperatures in the 70s also helped out, she said.
“It’s perfect,” St. Aubin said. “We always pray for blue skies. It helps everybody’s business today.”
Dyer resident Tami Redlarczyk was one of the thousands of people who lined up along Lincolnway to watch the parade.
“I’m not working for the first time in 16 years,” she said, adding how her kids used to participate in the festival’s fun runs.
A Portage native, Redlarczyk said she hadn’t been to downtown Valparaiso since the last time she was at the festival.
“It’s a beautiful day, and I like to shop and eat,” she said as the Valparaiso High School marching band passed by.
Andrea Brophy, who said she grew up in Valparaiso and recently moved to Porter, pointed out that her mom, Peggy Caprous, who was seated nearby for the parade, made a gigantic popcorn ball for the first festival for the Jaycees and people tried to eat it.
Brophy has been going to the festival for almost her entire life.
“One year I missed. I got married on Popcorn Fest, and I said I’d never get married on Popcorn Fest,” she said, adding how she made the concession to make sure her sister-in-law could make the wedding.
Lindsay Gear, meanwhile, started attending the festival when she was a student at Valparaiso University.
Four years ago, she moved to a house in the downtown near the library, making it easier for her and her teenage daughter to walk around the festival.
“It’s just a part of what you do,” she said of the festival. “You buy stuff you don’t need. You eat food you don’t need and have a good time.”