MILWAUKEE — Lakefront Brewery is hosting its 5th annual Maifest on Sunday, a celebration of all things gluten-free and spring, featuring 40 vendors, live music, German dancers, and a dachshund parade at 2 p.m.
The festival will offer gluten-free fried cheese curds, gluten-free soft pretzels, and 9 varieties of gluten-free beer, including a special one-day release called Maifest Mead.
Representatives from Children's Wisconsin and the Bonnie Lynn Mechanics Celiac Clinic will also be on hand at the event.
This year marks the first time organizers are shutting down Commerce Street for the festival, a move designed to accommodate the growing crowd.
WATCH: Lakefront Brewery's Maifest expands onto Commerce Street for the very first time
"We can spread out the vendors. We've expanded it into our grassy lot, changed the fencing, planted new trees just last week, and it's just providing everybody with more space," Kristin Hueneke said.
Organizers say attendees travel from across the Midwest, the East Coast, and Canada to attend, with between 3,000 and 4,000 people expected this year.
"There aren't a lot of things catering to this community where they can safely come and eat," Hueneke said.
The festival is open to everyone, not just those who eat gluten-free.
Organizers say the event is as much about community and the arrival of spring as it is about food.
"I want them to take away, first off, a full belly, and just that the changing of the seasons in Wisconsin and that celebration that it is finally spring. Coming together as a community to just have a good time, drink beer, listen to Milwaukee made music and eat some Milwaukee-made food. All the vendors are local, so it's just very local fun spring dachshunds," Hueneke said.
Maifest takes place at Lakefront Brewery on the riverfront in Milwaukee Sunday from 10-3. You can park at Shlitz Park where shuttles will take you the festival.
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