Claremont ready for Saturday’s Hogfest events

Organizers of Claremont’s annual Hogfest celebration say some changes made for this year will make the annual event more family friendly and fun than ever.

The event kicks off Saturday morning at 8 a.m. with a 5K Fun Run/Walk and coed volleyball, human foosball and coed softball tournaments at 8 a.m. and continuing throughout the day and evening concluding with a 9 p.m. movie in the park.

Hogfest is organized by the Claremont Chamber of Commerce, said Romell Matejcek. A difficulty in getting enough volunteers was one reason for some of the changes, she said. There was also a desire to keep costs down and have more events that would appeal to kids and families, she said.

Some changes were made last year and the response from the public was positive, she said, so the Chamber decided to continue along the same path.

One change is that all the events will be held in a centralized location near Memorial Park and the Fire Hall. The one exception is the softball tournament which will be farther down the street at the CHS field.

A popular event that will be returning this year is the RADZoo from Owatonna. The zookeepers will be at the Fire Hall at 11 a.m. with their assortment of traveling reptiles that is always popular with the younger set as well as adults.

Food will be available all day, Matejcek said, but there will not be a variety of outside vendors.

The Claremont Chamber, Fire Department and First Responders will be expanding the annual pork feed to an all-day event. Pork sandwiches, sweet corn and chips will be available all day, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the pavilion in the park.

The American Legion Auxiliary will be having an ice cream social from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Legion Hall and the members of the Presbyterian Church will be running a snack stand featuring popcorn, candy, pop, cotton candy and similar items.

A new event this year, she said, will be the community water fight from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. by the water tower. Everyone is invited to bring their super soakers and