Harvard Milk Days

Celebrate June Dairy Month (Related: Dairy Farm Fun Facts) at Illinois’ longest running festival – Harvard Milk Days.

The 72-year-old festival began in 1942 as a way to celebrate Harvard’s dairy farmers who were helping with the war effort. The town boasted seven dairy companies at the time and hundreds of dairy farms, and rightly proclaimed itself as the “Dairy Capitol of the World.”

Over the years, the Harvard Milk Days festival expanded to a three-day event and today, the town’s mascot, Harmilda the fiberglass Holstein, reigns over downtown during the festival and everyday, reminding the residents of the town’s rich dairy heritage.

The festival features a dairy cattle show, demos on cattle care, feeding and milking, and a milk-drinking contest. Guests can enjoy a two-hour parade on Saturday along with horse shows, bed races, a magic show, a petting zoo and much more.

Harvard Milk Days takes place June 6-8 2014. For more information, visit milkdays.com.

SEE ALSO: Dairy Farm Fun Facts

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