‘IT’S CHISLIC, IT’S SOUTH DAKOTA; WE’RE GOING’
Good spirit, strong numbers through first part of day helps define South Dakota Chislic Festival, which will return again in 2027
JEREMY WALTNER – PUBLISHER
Jennifer Hite isn’t from around here — you can tell by her thick southern drawl.
No, she’s from Mississippi, and the only reason she is in the area is because she’s a traveling CNA working at the Good Samaritan Society in Tyndall through the second week of August. Saturday was her day off.
She told this to one of the residents she works with late last week and wondered out loud how she might spend the day.
“There’s a chislic festival in Freeman,” he told her.
So she decided to check it out, and around 11 a.m. on Saturday, Hite was salting her first dozen sticks of South Dakota’s state nosh — and having the time of her life.
“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.”
PHOTOS: 2025 SD CHISLIC FESTIVAL
Hite wasn’t alone in her enjoyment. A scan of the crowd assembled at the Prairie Arboretum on July 26 revealed good vibes and a peppy spirit as thousands once again came to Freeman for the seventh South Dakota Chislic Festival — an event launched 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, remembers that first year. He remembers seeing the leadup to it on Facebook and how so many people were reconnecting with each other through 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 said. “Chislic is so unique and such a big thing in South Dakota and something we all just took part in. It was apparent to me that it was going to be a thing, and I said, ‘It’s chislic, it’s South Dakota, we’re going.’”
So Delvin, his wife, Lynn, and their three children headed to Freeman.
“When you hear ‘chislic festival’ it just catches your attention,” says Baylee Peterson, Delvin and Lynn’s daughter who was a freshman at SDSU that first year. “It was just so much bigger than you expected it to be, and it attests to who we are as South Dakotans. We tend to show up.”
Baylee, a morning anchor at Dakota News Now, was back on Saturday, not only as a guest, but as the emcee of the event — and so were her parents.
“It’s a unique hook; chislic is not a thing anywhere else,” Delvin says. “How did it take this long for a community to come up with a hook that’s so South Dakota. How did somebody not grab onto this sooner?”
Baylee remembers thinking that first year, ‘What’s going to evolve with this festival?’
“And now here we are,” she says. “I love being back now and seeing it full circle, how they have transformed it into something so productive. It’s a whole thing.”
And, like her dad, Baylee appreciates the connections the festival affords.
“It ties you to the state,” she says. “Events like this are so important to our communities. There are so many events in Sioux Falls and that’s great, and it’s fun to go to those events. But what’s even better is coming to Freeman, South Dakota, which you don’t get to see very often, and get to experience that small-town feel at such a big event, that’s put on so well by so many great people. I love it.”
Dusty Johnson, a Mitchell native who serves as South Dakota’s lone representation in the United States House, is no stranger to the chislic festival and was back again on Saturday, this time as a candidate for governor.
“Everything I love about South Dakota is on display here,” Johnson said. “It’s food bringing people together. It’s music bringing people together. This is a top five South Dakota event.”
Then, after being affirmed by a voter, Johnson responded by saying, “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 festival takedown 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 says, an excessive heat warning issued between 3 and 4 p.m. had a significant impact on the numbers.
“By 1:15 we were at around 4,000 guests,” Baer said. “You could have set a timer and just watched the crowd thinning out very quickly after the heat warning came through. We had a few more surges after that, so we’re thinking we were in the 6,000 to 7,000 range.”
Now, she and other organizers will take a breath and start thinking about the next South Dakota Chislic Festival — not next year, but in 2027, when it moves to an every-other-year event.
“That is exactly what our goal is,” she says. “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 again included live music throughout the day, activities for families and youth in the “kid zone” at Heritage Hall Museum & Archives, as well as other family-friendly activities on the grounds of the Prairie Arboretum.
