Fun fact: In 1979, Pepsi Co. announced that Farmington,Minn., consumed more Mountain Dew per capita than any other community, and helped it launch an annual festival, Mountain Dew Days. After the corporate sponsorship dropped, the festival was known as Dew Days.
This year, the June 26-29 event has a new name, courtesy of its homegrown sponsor: Top the Tater Days. Kemps’ sour cream dip has been produced at the same Farmington dairy plant for decades. And because Top the Tater is only available in the Upper Midwest, it has cultivated something of a cult following among Minnesotans who eat it with everything from chips to tuna salad to sloppy joes.
Top the Tater Days features far more events than the average town fest. It has the classics covered, with a street dance, car show, tractor pull, fun run and parade. Plus there are bed races, a cornhole tournament, an artisan vendor fair and medallion hunt. As well as minnow races, rubber-duck races, a speed puzzling competition and a puzzle swap.
Family-friendly activities include bounce houses and a Big Wheel race. And there will be plenty to eat between the doughnut-eating contest, banana-split-eating contest, steak fry and a waffle breakfast with a bloody Mary and mimosa bar.
Though Farmington is suburban, it maintains its agricultural roots, says Top the Tater Days committee chair Kristie Kerr. Those agrarian aspects are reflected at the festival through the Future Farmers of America (FFA) club’s animal meet-and-greet and a kiss the pig contest. (The community member who brings in the most donations for the local senior center gives a not-so-sweet swine a smooch, Kerr explained. “It is not cute,” she warned. “It has teeth.”)
Top the Tater will be giving away branded merch (water bottles, bandannas, beach balls) and hosting a scooping contest, where competitors load up a Minnesota-made Old Dutch potato chip with as much dip as possible without breaking it. “The winner will get a year’s supply of Top the Tater,” Kerr said.
