Cedarburg Wine & Harvest Festival

Cedarburg Wine & Harvest Festival is an annual harvest festival held in historic downtown Cedarburg, Wisconsin — drawing over 250,000 visitors across a single autumn weekend to celebrate the grape harvest season. Cedar Creek Settlement, a former woolen mill converted into a winery, serves as the festival's central hub, giving the event a distinctive architectural backdrop that sets it apart from typical outdoor wine gatherings.

The Cedarburg Wine & Harvest Festival features more than 300 local artisans and food vendors lining the streets of downtown Cedarburg, including The Chocolate Factory, Amy's Gourmet Apples, and The Farmstead. Wine sampling focuses on Cedar Creek Winery varieties alongside specialty harvest wines from surrounding Wisconsin vineyards. Live music runs continuously throughout the weekend on the Silver Creek Folk Stage and in the Cedar Creek Settlement Courtyard, with regional acts including The Acoustix and The Flood Brothers Band. The festival also includes grape stomping competitions, a grape spitting contest, hay rides through the historic district, and a Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off where local growers compete for bragging rights.

Visitors can take guided tours of Cedar Creek Winery's underground cellars, where winemakers walk guests through the production process and offer samples of the winery's varieties. With over 300 vendor booths and multiple performance stages operating simultaneously, planning a route in advance helps make the most of the weekend. The festival's location in Cedarburg's walkable historic district means most attractions are within easy reach on foot. Ticket pricing details are not currently confirmed, so checking the official festival source before purchasing is advised.

Cedarburg sits in eastern Wisconsin, where the state's wine producers work with cold-hardy grape varieties suited to the upper Midwest climate. Cedar Creek Winery, housed within the 19th-century Cedar Creek Settlement, is one of Wisconsin's established production wineries and anchors the festival's wine programming. The combination of a working winery, a preserved historic district, and an attendance figure of over 250,000 makes the Cedarburg Wine & Harvest Festival one of the larger harvest-focused events in the Upper Midwest.