Popcorn Festival

Festival Location: Valparaiso, IN, USA

Festival State: Indiana Festivals

Festival Type(s): Food Festivals, Food and Drink Festivals, Bizarre Festivals

By: © Nelson Taylor 2009

While popcorn itself isn't so odd, the world's most famous popcorn popper Orville Redenbacher is, or was, rest his hot buttered soul. Who could forget that nerdy rail of a man with his big fat bowtie?

Every Saturday after Labor Day, the town of Valparaiso, Redenbacher's hometown, celebrates his legacy at the Popcorn Festival. Some 70,000 people show up every year to this free event to put the almighty popped kernel on the pedestal.

While there's lots of popcorn on hand to eat, you can also learn creative popcorn decorating ideas. Who would have thought? But the big event is the popcorn parade, where float designers are encouraged to use popcorn on their crafts. A float in the 1979 parade, the first year of the event, was a 12-foot in diameter popcorn ball, which made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.