Kansas Celebration Approaches!

The 23rd annual Kansas Sampler Festival will be held May 5-6 in Liberal’s Light Park. If you want to get immersed in Kansas culture, you’ll find it here.

What do you know about Paxico, Lecompton, Oberlin, Onaga, Scandia, Humboldt, Arkansas City and Abilene? Learn more about what these and 130 other towns can offer at the festival. Have you heard of the Prairie Lavender Farm in Bennington or Linda Laird’s grain elevator book? Have you listened to Sky Smeed’s country crooning or Nolan Sump’s historical performance of a sod buster?

Chapman will be telling about their Kansas Auto Racing Museum and Concordia will tout their Whole Wall Mural. Prairie Harvest of Newton will introduce peppernuts to the festival audience and Council Grove’s Paradise Ranch will showcase their packgoats and Mammoth donkeys. The public can buy Kansas books, honey, or fishing lures, find hiking trails, and plan as many Kansas day trips as they desire.

This is a small sampling of the Kansas exhibitors that will be found under white, billowy tents in one of Liberal’s parks.

Festival foods include Becky’s Bierocks from St. Francis, Old-Time Ice Cream from Harper, and buffalo burgers from Dry Creek Buffalo Company, Wamego.

Festival overseer WenDee LaPlant says, “Sally Fuller and her convention and visitors bureau staff, the City of Liberal, the chamber of commerce, and many others have done a superb job in organizing and staging this celebration of what Kansas has to offer. We’re excited for the public to experience the festival against the Liberal backdrop.”

A project of the Inman-based Kansas Sampler Foundation, the festival is a kick-off of the explorer tourism season. LaPlant says, “It’s all Kansas from the Liberal pancakes to the questions Marci Penner asks from the Stump.”

The public can park at Seward County Community College, 1801 N. Kansas, and take a shuttle to Light Park.

Festival hours are Saturday, May 5, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, May 6 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission fee is $5 for adults and $3 for kids 7-12. For more information go to www.kansassamplerfestival.com or call 620.626.0170.

Find the High Plains Museum at the Festival this year in Liberal. The visitor favorite “Helicopters” will be available for free at the festival so keep an eye out!