This year’s Harvard Milk Days poster is a watercolor print of the old Beetstra family dairy barn just north of town.
The pastoral country scene is symbolic of Harvard’s history, which flows deep with a milk-production heritage.
But not depicted in the scene is a very important element of Harvard’s future: the emerging steel framework of Motorola’s new cellular telephone plant, which in real life looms not far off behind the barn.
The artwork’s title, somewhat ironically, is “Progress.”
“To a certain extent, progress is inevitable, and to a certain extent, it’s good,” said the poster’s creator, Darlene Bremer, a Crystal Lake kindergarten teacher who lives in Harvard.
“This community is going to be changing. It’s not going to be such a small little town anymore. I like Harvard the way it is, but things change.”
And how. In 1942, the first-ever Harvard Milk Days was a simple street dance for dairy farmers to celebrate their contribution to the World War II production effort.
In those days of brick streets and hay wagon stages, villagers could hardly have imagined the concept of a telephone without wires that you could take anywhere.
But 53 years later, Harvard newcomer and cellular phone manufacturer Motorola is the biggest sponsor of the festival, now a three-day extravaganza that gets larger every year.
And, it should be noted, Motorola now owns the old Beetstra family barn.
On Wednesday night, the festival got off to an unofficial but energetic start as several hundred people turned out to watch children race three-wheeled plastic bicycles and to cheer on adults who pushed and dragged beds around a racecourse.
The winners of the Big Wheel race, for children ages 3 to 7, included Matt Marunde, 3; Steven Holme, 4; Courteney Seyller, 5; Zack Garcia, 6; and Pat Hermonson, 7.
As for the bed race, the team from Spanky’s Bar won the men’s division, the team from LeFew Insurance won the women’s division, and the Sting Pub and Eatery team won in the mixed division. All of the teams were sponsored by local businesses.
While the festival is still a throwback to the old days of Harvard, with milk-drinking contests and a Wild West show, more and more the festival has become a time to consider the town’s changing face.
“It really is the time for Harvard to shine,” said Mayor William LeFew.
“And it’s not just a celebration of our heritage, but of our future.”
Scores of volunteer organizers of the Milk Days celebration, including 30 committee chairmen, have been planning the event since January.
Last year, about 80,000 visitors swarmed to the town of about 6,900 people for the three-day event, which officially begins Friday evening with a youth parade, exhibits and a concert by the Decatur Park Singers.
Events also include carnival rides, a cattle show, farm tours and two-footraces. But perhaps the biggest highlight of the weekend is the more than 2 1/2-hour parade that steps off at 1:30 p.m. Saturday down a specially whitewashed segment of Ayer Street, aptly dubbed, “The Milky Way.”
“People (along the parade route) are 10 and 15 feet deep,” said Wanda Marzahl, Milk Days secretary.
“They’re all cheering, and it’s a great feeling to see so many people come out for such a unique celebration.”
This year marks the 54th annual Milk Days, which organizers tout as the longest continuously running festival in Illinois. It is one of the only festivals that boasts such high attendance rates without selling alcohol, they note.
“Let’s face it,” Marzahl said. “Beer and milk don’t mix.”
New this year will be Saturday’s authentic, 1880s Wild West show, in which a traveling troupe in period garb is scheduled to perform a western drama complete with gunfights and professional stuntmen. The show will be performed at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Festival organizers say they try to present something new every year, which might account for why the crowd seems to grow annually.
Another reason might be Motorola. Milk Days has become a sort of homecoming for many former Harvard residents, festival planners say.
Now, the changes in their town are as big a magnet as the traditional small-town flavor they grew up with. And Motorola wants to make a good impression. This is the second year the company has contributed to the festival.
“It’s important to us to be a part of the community, not just a building,” said Motorola spokesman David Pinsky.
“This has been a very traditional event, and we like to consider ourselves part of the future of Harvard. This event is like a coming together of the two.”
But even with Motorola, Harvard residents never forget that the purpose of the festival is to honor the village’s dairy heritage.
“When Milk Days began originally . . . they wanted to honor farmers,” said Christine Ferguson, Milk Days entertainment committee co-chair. “We still keep the theme of agriculture.”
