Shoeless Joe Jackson: “Ray, is this heaven?”

Ray Kinsella: “No. It’s Iowa.”

— From the movie, “Field of Dreams”

Small-town festivals nearly always offer an enjoyable experience, especially for distant travelers who encounter local residents who delight in showing off their community and culture.  

We experienced just such an occasion during a recent journey through Iowa.  

We had booked airline tickets for a September trip to the Hawkeye State when a search for special events turned up a promising festival in Guttenberg, a small town along the Mississippi River.  

The German-themed festival was scheduled for the weekend we would be traveling from Austin, Minnesota, home of the Spam Museum (the subject of a future column), to the largest truck stop in America, west of Davenport. It sounded like fun and we had an open day, so we penciled it in.

Following several days of on-and-off again rain, sometimes quite heavy, the weather for the weekend festival was perfect with sunny skies and a high temperature in the low 70s. 

We arrived in town early, just in time for the opening ceremony of the 28th Annual Guttenberg GermanFest. 

The ceremony took place inside a large tent in a park beside the river. That’s where we ran into Mandy Ludovissy who was heading up the festival.  

She gave us a schedule outlining the day’s events and said we should talk with the director of the Guttenberg German Band that would perform for about an hour following the opening ceremony.

Walking outside the tent, we ran into Larry and Pat Gainer of Davenport, Iowa. Pat was carrying a jar of sauerkraut while Larry toted a six-pack of homemade beer.  

They told us they would be entering their items in the festival’s Kraut-Off and beer tasting contests. They had also entered their red Karmann Ghia in the vintage VW contest.  

This was the couple’s third GermanFest and this time they had arrived as a triple threat.

Following the concert, we met band director Dennis Hanna and wife Gayle, the latter of whom organized the town’s initial Germanfest and then continued in the capacity for another dozen years.  

Sitting in the local ice cream and pizza restaurant, Gayle and Dennis filled us in on GermanFest’s history. 

The couple met as students at Drake University and have been married for 62 years. In his younger days, Dennis had been a member of a band that played the iconic Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.

Then it was out to the festivities. We watched high school art students complete a chalk drawing, while young children enjoyed playing at an obstacle course. A little later, Northern Iowa University female dancers performed traditional German folk dances.  

Soon it was time for the Wiener Dog Dash. 

Four dachshunds were entered in each of four races, with the winner of each race entered in the final.  

In one of the preliminary races, each of the four dogs started in every direction but forward. One entrant finally turned and crossed the finish line while the competitors looked on. 

The overall winner was Fritz, a 7-year-old rescue dog from Gunder, Iowa.

Then it was time for some beer and bratwurst, the latter of which compared favorably to the many brats we have enjoyed in Germany.  

At Guttenberg’s GermanFest, German beer was $3 and the bratwurst $4, prices we considered a bargain. The brat could be covered with sauerkraut at no extra cost. Another food stand was selling bratwurst paddies, but we passed on those.

After such a healthy meal, we went hunting for hammerschlingen, a German game where participants use a hammer in an attempt to pound opponents’ nails into a tree stump. 

Each person takes a swing and then passes the hammer to the next person. The winner is the individual whose nail remains standing.  

During the contest we witnessed, the participants, all of whom were drinking beer, had difficulty making contact with their opponents’ nails.

Later in the day, we walked two blocks to the public library where a replica of the Gutenberg Bible was on display. The library was also showing Guttenberg 1937 Centennial videos throughout the day.

We departed Guttenberg in mid-afternoon, sadly missing the performance of Regal, the Quad City magician.  

We had also missed the prior evening’s brat dinner with music performed by Barefoot Becky & The Ivanhoe Dutchmen.  

Still, our time in Guttenberg was well spent. Friendly people, good beer, excellent bratwurst, perfect weather and an attractive small river town made for a grand time.

David and Kay Scott are authors of “Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges” (Globe Pequot). Visit them at mypages.valdosta.edu/dlscott/Scott.html. View past columns at www.facebook.com/DavidKayScott. The Scotts live in Valdosta, Georgia.