Cedarburg Strawberry Festival 2026 and the Full Festival Calendar

The Cedarburg Strawberry Festival draws up to 100,000 people to a town of 12,000. It runs over a single weekend in late June, takes over Washington Avenue from end to end, and stages more than 300 artists alongside the strawberry shortcake stands. For one weekend each year, downtown Cedarburg becomes one of the largest free art-and-food festivals in Wisconsin.

Strawberry Festival is the biggest of five annual events organised by Festivals of Cedarburg, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit that has been producing the town's festivals since 1973. The full calendar runs from February through the holiday season: Winter Festival in February, Strawberry Festival in June, Wine and Harvest Festival in September, Oktoberfest in October, and A Cedarburg Christmas from mid-November through Christmas Day. Each one anchors a different season, draws a different crowd, and changes how the downtown shopping district behaves for the weekend.

This guide covers every festival's 2026 dates, what to expect at each, and the practical details that determine whether your visit goes smoothly or stalls in traffic.

One hundred thousand people descend on a town of twelve thousand for a single weekend, and somehow the strawberry shortcake never runs out.

When is the Cedarburg Strawberry Festival 2026?

The Cedarburg Strawberry Festival 2026 takes place on Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28, 2026, in downtown Cedarburg, Wisconsin. The festival runs along Washington Avenue, runs both days from approximately 10 AM to 6 PM, and is free to attend. Service animals only; no pets. Verify hours against cedarburgfestivals.org before your visit, as schedules can shift year to year.

Strawberry Festival 2026

Strawberry Festival is Cedarburg's biggest weekend by attendance and by economic impact on the downtown district. The festival has been running for more than three decades, and the format has held steady: Washington Avenue closes to traffic, more than 300 vendors set up tents along the closed street, and the food stalls work through thousands of strawberry shortcakes across the two days.

The strawberry-themed food is the draw most visitors remember. Strawberry shortcake gets top billing, but the offerings run wider: strawberry pie, chocolate-dipped strawberries, strawberry slushes, strawberry crepes, strawberry brats, and strawberry wine from local producers. Schmit's Berry Farm of Mequon sells quart containers of freshly picked strawberries from a dedicated booth so visitors can take fruit home.

Art on the Avenue runs alongside the food. Festivals of Cedarburg highlights more than 300 local and Midwest artists who set up along Washington Avenue with paintings, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, fiber art, glass, woodwork, mixed media, and photography. Most pieces are for sale and most artists are at their booths talking about the work. The Cedarburg Cultural Center participates each year with a Fine Arts and Crafts Fair as part of the broader event.

Cedar Creek Park, immediately adjacent to Cedar Creek Settlement and a short walk from the main festival strip, hosts a dedicated kids' zone with family-oriented vendors and activities. The park also hosts live music throughout the weekend, with stages set up at multiple points along the festival footprint.

Live music runs all day on both days, with stages spread across the downtown. The acoustic and folk-leaning early-day sets give way to higher-energy bands in the late afternoon. The wine and beer gardens stay busy throughout, with Cedar Creek Winery serving as a natural anchor for visitors looking to combine festival food with a wine tasting.

Strawberry Festival is rain or shine. The festival operates regardless of weather, with cancellations only if instructed by Cedarburg Emergency Services. Bring sunscreen if it's clear and a packable rain jacket if it isn't.

Wine and Harvest Festival 2026

The Cedarburg Wine and Harvest Festival 2026 takes place on Saturday, September 19 and Sunday, September 20, 2026. Hours are 10 AM to 6 PM on Saturday and 10 AM to 5 PM on Sunday. Like Strawberry Festival, admission is free.

The Wine and Harvest Festival is Wisconsin's premier autumn celebration in this part of the state. The format follows the Strawberry Festival pattern: Washington Avenue closes, vendors set up, and the food stalls and wine gardens fill the streets. The seasonal emphasis shifts entirely. The wine garden becomes the centerpiece, featuring tastings from local Wisconsin vineyards alongside Cedar Creek Winery's offerings. The walls of fall foliage along Cedar Creek and the cooler weather change the experience meaningfully from the June festival.

Beyond the wine, the festival emphasises harvest-themed food and seasonal produce. Harvest Alley along Columbia Road hosts farmers and flower vendors with harvest-themed goods, while artisan vendors fill Washington Avenue with handmade products. Grape stomping demonstrations and contests run throughout the weekend. Live music spans multiple stages, with the Sunday afternoon sets often drawing the strongest crowds.

Visitors planning a wine-focused day pair the festival with a visit to Cedar Creek Winery at Cedar Creek Settlement, where the historic 1864 mill setting adds depth to the wine experience. The walkable scale of Cedarburg, with Settlement, Washington Avenue festival footprint, and Cedar Creek Park all within ten minutes on foot, means a day at the festival can easily extend into a full evening of downtown dining.

Oktoberfest 2026

Cedarburg Oktoberfest 2026 takes place on Saturday, October 3 and Sunday, October 4, 2026, the first full weekend of October. Saturday hours run 11 AM to 8 PM and Sunday 10 AM to 5 PM. Admission is free, and the standard two-hour parking limit downtown is lifted for the festival weekend.

Cedarburg's German heritage runs deep. Ozaukee County is among Wisconsin's oldest German settlements, and many of Cedarburg's founders, including Frederick Hilgen of Cedar Creek Settlement fame, came from Germany. Oktoberfest is the festival that leans most directly into that heritage. The Community Center parking lot becomes the main venue, with a large tent covering bands, the wooden dance floor, and seating.

The food is authentically German. Sauerbraten, Wiener Schnitzel, sausage platters, and traditional sides anchor the menu, served alongside German beers, German wines, and German desserts. Specialty beers from local breweries round out the offerings. The Glockenspiel show, a costumed cuckoo-clock-style performance, repeats every two hours throughout each day and tends to draw the biggest crowds.

The music programme features traditional dance groups: the Pommersche Tanzdeel Dancers, D'Lustig'n Wendlstoana Dancers, Schnapps und Tanz Band, River City Blaskapelle, and the Cedarburg Civic Band rotate through the stages across the weekend. The wooden dance floor inside the tent stays busy with polka, waltz, and traditional German folk dancing.

Competitive guests can enter the lederhosen and dirndl contests, the German Spelling Bee, or the Sauerkraut Eating Contest. The expanded marketplace covers both the City Hall lawn and the Community Center parking lot, with vendors selling handcrafted goods alongside Bavarian-themed merchandise. Cedarburg's local restaurants generally extend hours during Oktoberfest weekend.

Winter Festival 2026

Winter Festival 2026, themed "Après Ski" this year, runs Saturday, February 21 and Sunday, February 22, 2026, in downtown Cedarburg. Saturday hours are 11 AM to 7 PM and Sunday 12 PM to 6 PM. Like the other major festivals, admission is free.

Winter Festival is the smallest of Cedarburg's main festivals by attendance but arguably the most distinctive. The format mixes indoor and outdoor programming: the Cedarburg Community Center Gym hosts a curated vendor market with local artisans and specialty makers, while outdoor events spread across the downtown and City Hall lawn. The indoor focus is what makes the festival workable even in February temperatures.

Notable outdoor events include the dog sled pull hosted by the Alaskan Malamute Club of Wisconsin, which draws a strong family crowd to watch teams of malamutes work the course outside the Community Gym. The petting zoo on the north side of the City Hall lawn features camel rides, pony rides, goats, sheep, and mini cows. A complimentary kids' craft area inside the Gym keeps younger visitors busy.

The food and drink programming leans into the season. The annual Soup Contest draws local restaurants competing for top honors, with visitors sampling and voting on their favorites. Granny Bingo, hosted by a one-of-a-kind Granny impersonator, runs across both days and is a longstanding crowd favorite. The festival's raffle works on a participation model: spend over ten dollars with any participating Cedarburg merchant or restaurant, get a raffle ticket. Winners are announced in the Community Gym at set times across each day.

Winter Festival's smaller scale changes the experience meaningfully from Strawberry Festival or Wine and Harvest. Crowds are lighter, parking is easier, and the indoor venues mean weather is less of a factor. For visitors who want the festival atmosphere without the summer-weekend crush, Winter Festival is the easiest visit on the calendar.

A Cedarburg Christmas

A Cedarburg Christmas runs from mid-November through Christmas Day each year. Unlike the other Festivals of Cedarburg events, this is a multi-week season rather than a single weekend, and the activities are distributed across the downtown rather than concentrated in one festival footprint.

The downtown transforms with lights, festive decorations, and the kind of small-town holiday atmosphere that draws visitors from Milwaukee and beyond for day trips throughout the season. Carolers perform across multiple weekends. A tree lighting ceremony anchors the early part of the season. The annual Santa Dash Away 5K draws a strong field. Santa's workshop and horse-drawn carriage rides operate on weekends throughout December.

For visitors timing a trip to align with A Cedarburg Christmas, the holiday shopping at Cedar Creek Settlement is the natural complement. Alpine Gift Haus inside the Settlement carries an extensive selection of Christmas decorations and festive ornaments, and many of the boutiques along Washington Avenue rotate in holiday inventory and decor for the season.

How to visit Cedarburg during a festival

Festival weekends change the practical realities of visiting Cedarburg. Three things to plan for.

Parking is the biggest one. Festivals of Cedarburg's vendor materials note that parking is extremely limited on festival weekends. Free street parking and lot parking exist, and the two-hour parking limit in the downtown district is lifted on festival days. But on Strawberry Festival weekend in particular, arriving after mid-morning means a longer walk in from the perimeter lots. The earlier the arrival, the closer the parking.

Accommodation books early. The historic Washington House Inn at the north end of downtown books up weeks in advance for Strawberry Festival and Wine and Harvest weekends, with rooms going at premium rates. Other Cedarburg accommodation fills on the same timeline. Visitors planning a festival weekend trip should book by April for the June Strawberry Festival and by July for the September Wine and Harvest. Day-trip visitors from Milwaukee, Madison, or Chicago can plan a longer day rather than an overnight, with the festival footprint walkable from any downtown lot.

Restaurants get busy. Cedarburg's regular downtown restaurant lineup, including PJ Piper Pancake House for breakfast, Cream and Crepe Cafe in the Settlement, Union House Cedarburg for lunch and dinner, Anvil Pub and Grille, and Hefner's Frozen Custard and Jumbo Burgers for casual food, runs near capacity throughout festival weekends. Reservations help. Sunday brunch slots in particular fill weeks ahead. Festival food stalls cover the gap for visitors who want to graze the streets rather than sit down, but Cedarburg's full restaurant scene is worth knowing about when planning the weekend.

For drivers coming from Milwaukee, the trip is approximately 25 minutes via I-43 North to WI-60 East. From Chicago, plan on about two hours via I-94 North to I-43 North. Verify routes against current traffic before leaving, since construction and festival closures can affect approach roads.

About Festivals of Cedarburg

Festivals of Cedarburg, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that has produced Cedarburg's major events since the early 1970s. Winter Festival and Wine and Harvest Festival both launched in 1973 and have run continuously since. Strawberry Festival followed in the 1990s and grew into the largest of the five. Oktoberfest and A Cedarburg Christmas round out the calendar.

The organisation is volunteer-driven. Producing five annual festivals across a year requires thousands of volunteer hours alongside the commitment of local businesses and sponsors. Sponsorship dollars offset the costs of logistics, safety, entertainment, and infrastructure, all of which have grown steadily as the festivals have grown in scale.

The festivals' purpose runs beyond the weekend itself. Proceeds support community projects, local businesses, and nonprofit initiatives across Ozaukee County. The economic impact on Cedarburg's downtown shopping district is substantial: festival weekends drive year-defining sales for many of the boutiques and restaurants that depend on the visitor traffic. For visitors, attending a Cedarburg festival is a direct contribution to the community that hosts it.

The organisation's office is located at W63 N643 Washington Avenue, 2nd Floor, Cedarburg, WI 53012. The festival website at cedarburgfestivals.org publishes detailed schedules, vendor lists, and parking maps for each event in the weeks leading up to it. Phone enquiries go to (262) 377-9620.

If you're planning a festival visit, browse other Cedarburg experiences and accommodation on the Cedarburg Guide, where every listing is locally verified before it goes live.