My Gosh!!!! Travelled from Tucson to Warrens, Wi to check out this cranberry festival. What fun...so much food, crafts and anything cranberries you'll find that you just can't "live without". A whole lot of Badgers and Packers paraphernalia. Buy you a shirt , pot holders and other souvenirs here cuz your local Walmart ain't gonna have it. TIP. Come early it starts at 7 Parking on the road is free along the 2 lane highway, already has cars lined up to get in, bring cash, vendors do take cards but some have surcharge...they do have ATM., wear comfy shoes lotsa walking. Gotta take a picture with rubber waders/bibs for $10 read more

See all

What an event 14500 people in a town of normally under 600. Miles of food crafts and STUFF. prepare to walk and bring a wagon or backpack, you will find something"s" to buy. Visit the craft/handmade area for items you dont see else where. Make sure to book as close to 1 yr ahead as possible rooms are at a premium, and be ready for more than 1 day to see everything. There are ALOT of "girls weekend out" groups shopping, shopping and more shopping. One of the few issues is finding a specific vendor or item, the maps are hard to follow if you are looking for a booth number or vendor by name. You will pay to park but there are constant shuttles for you and your stuff. They have over 800 Arts & Crafts booths, 300 Flea & Antique booths, 100 Farm Market booths, and food food and food, (the whole thing is bigger than some state fair's) I recommend you give it a try read more

46 years now, the Cranberry Festival has taken over the little town of Warrens. If you enjoy outdoor events this should be on your list. Of course, you will find some cranberry items. Amount can vary depending on how the crops are going by the end of September. Ocean Spray will have their products there and sometimes has a new surprise flavor or item available first at the Cranberry Festival, before you see it on store shelves. There will be vendors with home made crafts and foods. As well as vendors selling items like a good sized flea market. Look for some of the area booster club booths to help support them and get a warm cup of coffee, hot chocolate, or hot apple cider. This year it was cooler, so this was nice to have. On warmer years you can find cranberry covered ice cream or smoothies. During the weekend they do have a wonderful parade. You can also see performance artists or local choirs and bands performing. Being a small town, yes, parking is an issue. But keep that in mind before you go. If you come early, like 7 am when they start, you'll be able to park closer to all the action. One issue I found was their map on their website had one area marked as handicap parking, but when I arrived, it was not. I was able to park in a yard with no car blocking my wheelchair ramp. The other reason to come early, as I did, is you can get around a bit easier as there are not as many people around. But, yes, it does get busy pretty quickly. If you are buying bigger things, there are some nice people with golf carts that can help get it back to your car. Otherwise, many will bring a small wheeled basket or foldable wagon to pick up things. Be prepared to go home with more than you expect. I saw a Packer solar lighthouse I almost came home with. It was really cool, but bigger than what I was looking for. It had been a few years since I was here last. It has grown nicely. Plan to dress accordingly. Bring your walking shoes. And have lots of fun! read more

Warrens Cranberry Festival - You never know who you might see at the Cranberry Festival. Donald Driver was there shooting a commercial on the Cranberry Festival float. - Festivals Near Me - Warrens, Wisconsin

If you love vendor events and craft festivals, you will love this one! It is over 3 miles of vendors and crafts! A wide range of items makes this a great deal of fun. We were there for the parade as well. A fun parade with variety of participants. Highly recommend you plan your visit around this at least once. Be prepared to walk! And suggestion -- bring a backpack if you plan to purchase a lot. (Four stars because it was a little muddy in some places and a bit difficult to find all the vendors on the back side.) read more

Warrens Cranberry Festival - Festivals Near Me - Warrens, Wisconsin

Somewhere between three and four stars, but rounding up since some of the issues were out of the festival's control - namely having a freakishly hot 90+ degree day at the end of September in a week that was in the 60s otherwise. The good: + The festival seems to encompass literally the entire town, which is pretty cool + Parking was easy and only a few blocks from one end of the festival (we were on the opposite side of the interstate) + Plenty of port-a-potties + Cranberries jubilee! Sweet, tart, and served over super creamy vanilla ice cream - a steal at only $2 and fun pictures with the giant frying pan. + I found some super delicious whipped cranberry honey. + Something for just about everyone in shopping or foodstuffs. Neutral: +/- Huge crowds - good for the vendors but it can be a little overwhelming/annoying. Everyone's got shopping carts and I had my foot rolled over more than once with no apology. Some of the spaces between booths are very tight so you can get stuck if someone ahead of you stops. The not so good: - A surprising lack of cranberries and cranberry products. I think we saw two booths out of 800+ that had fresh cranberries for purchase. There was a smattering of other cranberry items, but for being a cranberry festival I would have expected cranberries at every turn. - There are a bunch of booths, but it's very repetitive. We walked up and down every aisle but you could probably do a quarter of the flea market and still see every product. - The pancake breakfast. It was touted on the website, but it's kind of pricey ($7), you stand in line forever, and you get Krusteaz mix pancakes, Sysco sausage, coffee, milk, or a Dixie bathroom cup of juice, and canned cranberry sauce and syrup at your table. I would have expected at the very least cranberries in the pancakes or homemade cranberry sauce, but alas. - Impossible lines for the bog tours/Cranberry Discovery Center. Lines were out the door and wrapped around the building and tours were almost sold out by 11. Long story short, it's a small-town festival that will entertain you for half a day on the cheap. If your love of cranberries is the main motivation for visiting, you may leave somewhat disappointed. read more

Warrens Cranberry Festival - Cranberries Jubilee - Festivals Near Me - Warrens, Wisconsin

See all

Wow, who knew? That a mere 4.5 hours away was this super huge festival for the Cranberry! Well, this whole area around Warrens is the biggest producer of cranberries in the US (currently). My mom is kind of obsessed with cranberry bogs (are cranberries grown in water? what's with all the water?) and since she read about the area in a Tribune write up, she asked that we all go with her to the fest (and I drive of course). So off we went. First, this festival is huge. It's not just about cranberry inspired food and gifts, it's also a huge flea market/craft fair. We just wanted to make it about cranberries so we took the cranberry harvest tour and cranberry inspired food/gift shopping. If you want to take the cranberry harvest tour, you need to purchase your tickets the same day and easily sell out. And if it's hot (as it was that weekend) get your tickets early and take an early tour because the sun will beat you up. We got their early enough so that we were able to take the first tour and beat the heat. Our tour guide was amazing. She is a cranberry farmer and she shared a lot of interesting information about the growth and harvesting of cranberries. Unfortunately, no farms were harvesting so we couldn't see a flooded bog. But it was still a nice tour and we learned a lot. There's the usual Americana of fests--a Miss Cranberry pageant, a cranberry chiffon pie eating contest, a contest for the biggest cranberry. We were able to purchase some cranberry food stuffs like jams, salsas and honey at the Cranberry discovery center. And one booth was making the Cranberries Jubilee--served over ice cream, it was sweet and tart and a pretty good dessert. The food booths ranged from Carnival type booths to more local food presentations (like the pancake breakfast at the church). Parking is easy in one of the 4 lots ($5). And many residents offer parking on their property too. Everyone seemed to be a great mood. They had complimentary golf carts in case folks needed a ride back to their car. Not sure I'd return, but it was a fun once and done experience. read more

where are the cranberries? We went to the farmers market in St. Paul this morning and bought some cranberries from "the cranberry lady" of Tomah. It reminded me of our stop at warrens cranberry festival last weekend on our way back from portage. I asked the cranberry lady of tomah, I said, hey lady, you ever go to warrens? (I thought she would say yes, since tomah isn't too far, and they are in the same business, right?) She wrinkled her face and said: never. We didn't buy any cberries in warrens (hardly could find any, to be honest) but did have a great curly fried potato, and some jerky. More of a fair full of crappy junk food and beanie babies than a festival. Oh, Ocean Spray was a sponsor of many booths, still no berries! read more

Get to this place early, like right at 7am and you can get parking in someone's front yard right next to or behind booths. getting here early actually helped us see about half the booths without too much crowding. i did find it funny that there were hardly any cranberries at this festival. It's more of a humongous craft/flea market. Food vendors were good, had a walking taco that was great since it was 47f with 40mph winds, also had fantastic deep fried cheese curds. Don't miss the summer sausage booth, they make them in mauston and they are great. got the cheese and jalepeno summer sausage and it's a hit with my husband. If you want to buy stuff from the cranberry discovery center do it as soon as you get there. we waited until we were headed back to the car and the line went around the inside of the building. no cranberries for me! fun time, hoping for better weather next year and maybe we'll go on a bog tour :) read more

Wow! About 3 miles of craft booths. It was a hot day, but all of us girls had a great time. Too much to see in one day. I was a little dissapointed in the cranberry tour. I thought we would be able to see all of the pretty bright red cranberries floating on top of the water. We plan on going back next year. read more

Expected arts, flea market/antiques, cranberry-infused learning and appreciation; instead, stayed at a horrible motel (St. Joseph's Resort, Necedah), found endless miles of booths in Warrens, 98% full of made-in-China crap, and paid for a mediocre tour of bogs where berries were just beginning to ripen. Weekend was completely redeemed by a trip to Necedah Wildlife Refuge and state parks in the area, all of which were, of course and sadly, empty of other people. What a depressing reminder of how stupid and cheesy, in the worst sense, Wisconsin has become. read more

We ride an activities bus from Rochester, Mn to Warrens, Wi and it's the only way to travel. We pull in by the fire station and have a short walk up a hill to the fest area. OH MY...it's really huge and overwhelming. There are so many crafts to appreciate that you will be there a long time. When you see something you love, buy it because you will not beable to remember where the vendor was located. Be prepared to walk for miles...I purchased a "pull cart" with a flip down seat....it was perfect and I'm not even old!! Yes, there are cranberries to purchase...they are located with all of the food trucks. Cranberries are sold by the pound. Both 2012 and 2013 the weather was wonderful. Hoping for the same this year. read more

I was there this past Friday. The place is HUGE! Parking ran from $5 to $15, we paid $10. I would say half the vendors sold cheap bulk crap from China. It reminded me of The Seven Mile Fair in Racine WI. People with boxes of socks, cheap $1 dog toys selling them for $7. The metal lawn ornaments that are made in China or wall art that you can buy at Hobby Lobby at a cheaper price on their 50% off days. Then you had the vendors that sold soap, T-Towels, crochet items and other items. What impressed me was the real artists that were there. You have to really look for them but they are there. Hand made furniture, jewelry, lamps, and art work. I liked the variety of food vendors and the lady who made the Pumpkin and Cranberry Bread for $2. The cranberry bogs were interesting to see. The town of Warren had a lot Port O Ports which is a good thing. I wish they had more benches were you can sit down. I am glad I went but I don't know if I will be back. It's the China crap that bothers me oh and the old people pulling around those shopping carts. They just don't watch where they are going. read more

Insane! So overly crowded year after year. It is a struggle to get around. Good food vendors, good cranberry products for sale. Tons of crafts. But....has turned into a giant flea market. Prepare to walk forever, from the parking to the event. read more

I love this festival and attend every year! Over 3 miles of shopping with art/crafts, flea market and farmers market. The festival is a kick off to the cranberry harvest season so fresh berries depend upon the weather. If you want to take a bog tour, get your tickets early as they tend to sell out early and are only offered on Friday and Saturday. Great variety of food booths, local entertainment and a huge parade on Sunday. There are trams that move you from one end of town to the other but still a lot of walking. If you purchase something heavy the golf carts will deliver right to your car! Great to get a jump start on Christmas shopping! read more

I have to agree with some of the reviews here and in other pages that express frustration about how big the festival has gotten and whether the quality of the vendors is even worth the space that they are taking. We saw an amazing number of flea market type vendors with counterfeit designer brand products ($25 Michael Kors purses) cheaply made merchandise, off brand clothing, more Bamboo pillows, themed tshirts and fleece blankets that I have ever seen in my life. Other vendors had merchandise which seemed to be crafted by hand but upon closer look it turned out to be manufactured in China. Surprisingly, the flea market vendors have the better spaces. One you get to the top of the giant hill into town some vendors are squeezed into nooks and corners at the very back of narrow rows with very narrow paths in between. We didn't even go into those areas because it was shoulder to shoulder. There seems to be an attempt to provide courtesy transportation. We saw numerous golf carts and little trailers but because of the incredibly crazy amount of people finding one with space available was about impossible. We saw several things that we were intrested in purchasing but we would have to carry them around or go back all the way down hill to our parking spot. Some vendors are willing to hold your item and help you carry it to your parking spot but it is only are few vendors. Some vendors would hold paid merchandise at the bottom of the hill so we could pick it up on the way out which we found disappointing. There is a small cranberry center, you can go learn all about cranberries and there are tours for the bogs as well. I bought some salt water taffy, it was supposed to have cranberries and raspberries and they notice until I get at home that it was made out of artificial ingredients anything even list cranberries or raspberries. Amongst the flea market style vendors with cheap merchandise we did manage to see some real crafter and creative, unique merchandise at the top of hill in town, it was just too crowded and confusing and we didn't bother to check most of it out. We still had a good time and bought some really cool merchandise but I'm not sure that is worth an entire weekend of our time. Sometimes when something gets too big, it loses its identity. We attended the Stone Lake Cranberry Festival, much smaller but with better vending offerings. read more