Jennifer Hite’s thick southern drawl indicates that she is not from around here.
No, she’s from Mississippi, and the only reason she’s here is that she’s a traveling CNA working at the Good Samaritan Society in Tyndall until the second week of August. Saturday was her day off.
She mentioned this to one of the residents she works with late last week and wondered aloud how she would spend the day.
“There’s a chislic festival in Freeman,” he explained.
So she decided to try it, and by 11 a.m. on Saturday, Hite was salting her first dozen sticks of South Dakota’s state dish — and having a great time.
“I’m loving it,” Hite said. “I love y’all’s weather compared to what I’m used to back home, and the chislic is so good — so tender and juicy.”
Hite was not alone in her enjoyment. A scan of the crowd gathered at the Prairie Arboretum on July 26 revealed good vibes and a cheerful spirit as thousands returned to Freeman for the seventh South Dakota Chislic Festival, an event founded in 2018 to honor and celebrate the food that is unique to the larger Freeman and Menno communities.
Delvin Peterson, a Minnesota native who attended South Dakota State University, recalls his freshman year. He recalls seeing the buildup on Facebook, and how many people were reconnecting with one another as a result of the hype.
“All of these people that went to school at USD or SDSU or Northern or wherever, they were using that as a forum to get back together,” he told me. “Chislic is such a unique and popular event in South Dakota, and we all recently participated. It was obvious to me that it was going to happen, so I said, ‘It’s chislic, it’s South Dakota, we’re going.
So Delvin, his wife Lynn, and their three children traveled to Freeman.
“When you hear ‘chislic festival’ it just catches your attention,” says Baylee Peterson, Delvin and Lynn’s daughter and first-year SDSU student. “It was much bigger than you expected, and it reflects who we are as South Dakotans.” We usually show up.”
Baylee, a morning anchor at Dakota News Now, returned on Saturday, not only as a guest, but also as the event’s emcee. Her parents were also present.
“It’s a unique hook; chislic is not a thing anywhere else,” according to Delvin. “How did it take so long for a community to come up with a South Dakota-specific hook? Why didn’t anyone notice this sooner?”
Baylee recalls thinking the first year, ‘What’s going to happen with this festival?’
“And now here we are,” she explains. “I love coming back now and seeing how they’ve turned it into something so productive. It’s an entire thing.”
Baylee, like her father, values the opportunities for connection provided by the festival.
“It ties you to the state,” she says. “Events like this are extremely important for our communities. Sioux Falls hosts a plethora of events, which is fantastic, and attending them is enjoyable. But what’s even better is visiting Freeman, South Dakota, which you don’t get to see very often, and experiencing that small-town feel at such a large event, which is put on so well by so many wonderful people. “I love it.”
Dusty Johnson, a Mitchell native who serves as South Dakota’s sole representative in the United States House, is no stranger to the chislic festival and returned on Saturday as a candidate for governor.
“Everything I love about South Dakota is on display here,” he said. “Food brings people together. It’s music that brings people together. “This is a top-five South Dakota event.”
After being confirmed by a voter, Johnson replied, “Belly full of chislic, heart full of love.”
Andrea Baer, chair of the SDCF Board of Directors, was still feeling the love late Sunday afternoon, even after the festival had ended in the sweltering heat.
“We had a very, very good day,” she said. “Our morning crowd was amazing and, had the weather cooperated, our numbers would have been right where they were in previous years.”
Indeed, she claims that an excessive heat warning issued between 3 and 4 p.m. had a big impact on the numbers.
“By 1:15, we were at around 4,000 guests,” Baer said. “You could have set a timer and watched the crowd disperse quickly after the heat warning was issued. We had a few more surges after that, so we believe we were in the 6,000-7,000 range.”
Now, she and the other organizers will take a deep breath and begin planning the next South Dakota Chislic Festival — not next year, but in 2027, when it will become an every-other-year event.
“That is exactly what our goal is,” she explains. “We have so many ideas that we are already throwing around, and this gives us a little more time to get out in the communities to promote what we do and get more publicity with our brand.”
This year’s festival once again featured live music throughout the day, activities for families and youth in the “kid zone” at Heritage Hall Museum & Archives, and other family-friendly activities on the Prairie Arboretum grounds.
