Corn Carnival comes back for 99th year
On the precipice of their centennial anniversary, the Gladbrook Corn Carnival returned in 2021 for a weekend full of activities.
Organized by the Corn Carnival Corporation, the 99th Gladbrook Corn Carnival took place June 17-20 featuring a full schedule of entertainment and traditional events. The theme for this year’s event was “Cornival”, in reference to the colorful worldwide festival in Brazil.
The activities Thursday began with the Collector’s Fair and the opening of the midway carnival and the Matchstick Marvels museum.
In the evening, a crowd gathered at the Gladbrook City Park for the crowning of the Little Miss/Mr. Corn Carnival and the Corn Cob Queen as well as the annual Kiddies Parade.
Winners for the Little Miss and Mr. Corn Carnival were drawn at random, with the honors going to Kaiden Deeds and Dawson Sash. Katy Thompson was named the 2021 Corn Cob Queen, taking over for Joan Surber who held the crown for two years after the coronavirus pandemic canceled 2020 activities.
Friday brought a sizable crowd to town to watch the Grand Parade, which proceeded through its usual residential loop in the evening.
Corn Carnival organizer Terri Luehring said she felt the crowd might have been the largest in the past five or so years.
Once the parade concluded, people quickly emptied onto 2nd Street where two downtown blocks were full of food stands, carnival rides, a beer garden and an outdoor stage for live entertainment.
Organizers constructed a modified layout of the food court, relocating the sweet corn stand, Tama County Pork Producers stand, Tama County Cattlemen stand as well as the picnic table seating out of the grocery store parking lot and into the street where attendees could easily browse food options and have a comfortable place to sit and eat.
Throughout the supper hour, 2nd Street was mostly shoulder-to-shoulder as hundreds of residents, alumni and visitors from all over the region showed up for something fun to do on a Friday night.
At least six class reunions were held at the carnival, including groups from the Class of 1946, 1965, 1971, 1977, 1981 and 1996 that participated in the Grand Parade.
“Seeing the town full of people was really special,” carnival organizer Jeanne Paustian said. “It’s a good feeling that we’re starting to open back up, starting to do the things that we like to do. It was fun to see all the grandmas and grandpas out spending time with their grandkids and great grandkids.”
Saturday at the carnival provided a full slate of activities including breakfast served downtown, a tractor ride, card tournaments at Spanky’s, kids activities in the park, the firemen’s waterball contest, a garden walk, merchant exhibits at the City Centre, live music and a fireworks display.
New this year was a billy goat drop activity that took place in the grass lot west of Spanky’s Saturday afternoon.
Community activities wrapped up Sunday with a church service at the theater featuring Hillbilly Bob and his Model A from Dysart.
Weather during the 99th Corn Carnival was hot but did not cause any activities to be canceled.
One of the most popular attractions at the carnival is the sweet corn stand put on by the Corn Carnival Corporation. The stand prepares approximately 1,500 ears of corn to be cooked, buttered and sold over the three-day event.
Luehring said the question she gets from people the most is where the sweet corn comes from that’s ready to eat in mid-June. She always jokes they usually get the ears from a sweet corn field.
While Iowa sweet corn isn’t ready for harvest in late spring, early crops in warmer areas like Florida can be ready to go as soon as early March.
Plans are already underway for the 100th year celebration of the Gladbrook Corn Carnival in 2022. Luehring said they hope to bring back a couple traditional events, like the car cruise and the 5K fun run, that were unable to be held this year due to lack of volunteer organizers. A special quilt raffle is also being organized which will feature a wide variety of Corn Carnival quilts that were given out throughout the 100-year history of the carnival.
Luehring said through her years helping with the carnival, she’s learned how much of a coordinated effort the event requires, but also how to find help in unlikely places.
“It takes local people to make the Corn Carnival happen,” Luehring said. “But I’ve also discovered that alumni and people that have moved away, are more than willing to help as much as they can. And so I’ve gotten some volunteer names of people that will come back and give us whatever amount of time that they can to help make sure things happen. It takes a large group to pull this off every year and lots of people that are committed to making these small town activities go.”
Corn Carnival information and photos from the 2021 event can be found on the Corn Carnival Facebook page. Additional details can also be found online at www.gladbrookcorncarnival.org.