Sauerkraut Days

On the Saturday of Sauerkraut Days, the Bear River Bottling booth in Zollinger Park sells the official Providence sauerkraut, and people stop there to talk. “We get people at the booth all day on Saturday that will come and share stories of what they did with their grandma growing up,” said John Mayer of Bear River Bottling. In 2024 the stand sold the kraut in bottles, both classic and fancy. After the 2026 festival closed, jars were still on sale at the Providence City Office, by the single bottle or by the case.

The 2026 festival ran August 10 to 15. Most of it took place in Zollinger Park, at 51 North 200 West. The Friday parade stepped off at 5 p.m. from 300 South and Main Street, went north, turned west on Center Street, and ended at the park. Supper ran from 6 to 9. The Ridgeline Booster Club served bratwurst and sauerkraut, and Morty’s offered a limited special menu. Drink and dessert trucks parked nearby, and The BirkenRocks played from 6 to 8. Children sold their own goods at the Cabbage Patch Kids Market, and the miniature golf course stayed open until 10. At 9 p.m. Cool Runnings played as an outdoor movie, with popsicles handed out by the Providence City Youth Council.

Saturday began with breakfast food trucks at 7 a.m., a 5K at 7, and a one-mile run at 8. A pickleball tournament had been playing since Wednesday evening on the courts at Zollinger and Leonhardt parks, each day a higher bracket, and on Saturday morning the strongest teams took the courts. From 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. the park held vendors, an art table, yard games, a golf simulator, and food trucks advertising “Sauerkraut and more!” There was also a skateboard contest. Bingo started at noon. The Historic Preservation Commission led tours of the town from the southeast corner of the park, listed on the schedule for 1 to 4 p.m. and on that day’s Facebook post for 1 to 3:15. The first Sauerkraut Days Cornhole Competition began at 2 and was free to duos or to anyone who found a partner on the spot. The Local Legends Baseball Game started at 6, and a drone show sponsored by Next Meters closed the week at dark, about 9 p.m.

The 2026 grand marshal was Wesley M. Bitters, born and raised in Providence. Both sides of his family have lived there since 1864. He came back in 2008 and lives on land his great-great-grandfather bought in 1883, in the house his great-grandfather built in 1904. Bitters served in the military, coached Providence’s first Little League baseball team, and sat on the Spring Creek Water Board and the Providence Historical Commission.

Cans hidden around town

The festival opens days before the parade with Find the Can. Each morning and evening a riddle is posted to the city and festival social media accounts. The first group to reach the hidden can finds a note to take to the city office for a large prize, and later arrivals still find something small. In 2026 the Moon family found the first can on Monday morning at an estate and pallet sale warehouse, after coming in second several times over the previous couple of years. That night another branch of the Moons found can number two at the city Public Works building. On Tuesday, Team Olson/Albrechtsen found the morning can at Next Meters, and Makai Reeves was first to Morty’s. On Wednesday, the Palsson family reached the library first. The evening clue, the festival page reported, “tripped a lot of you up,” and the Olson family found that prize at the mouth of Providence Canyon. Thursday’s cans turned up at Cache Valley Assisted Living, found by the Henry family, and outside the Megaplex, found by the Johnson family. The last can of the year went out Friday morning.

Twelve hundred pounds in barrels

For the 2026 festival, Bear River Bottling made about 1,200 pounds of sauerkraut, the largest batch it had produced for the event. It fermented for five weeks, and the barrels were opened about a week before the festival. “I will say the most stress that I have all year long is the morning that I have to open up those barrels after five weeks of fermenting,” Mayer said. “I always plan it so it’s the week before the event and stuff is the freshest we could have. And I know if something went bad, we don’t have a second chance.”

The 2026 account says Mayer began making the festival’s sauerkraut about five years earlier. The Herald Journal wrote in August 2025 that the company had made it “for the last two years, with help from local residents.” By the city’s account, in 2024 several City Council members and other residents spent months on the batch alongside the bottler. Mayer had never made sauerkraut before and, at the time, did not particularly like it. He spent about three months researching production before his first batch. “I felt honored to be given an opportunity to do that,” he said.

Nicole Bone has chaired the celebration for ten years, according to the 2026 report. The city’s 2024 release spells her name Nichole and lists Ashley Poole as her co-chair. “My ancestors helped settle Providence and I just have really gravitated on to that and have loved facilitating this and helping bring people together,” Bone said. Organizers say the festival now draws visitors from across Utah and Idaho, and that businesses they once had to recruit now come asking how they can help. “It is amazing to see how quickly everybody gets back on the wagon for planning the next year,” Bone said.

From settlers’ suppers to a city festival

The sources give the custom more than one starting point. Megan McCuistion, the city’s public information officer, places it at settlement: “Within the first few years they were having sauerkraut dinners. That’s how they gathered. That’s how they celebrated being together.” The city’s 2024 release ties the celebration to the early 1900s, when the German and Swiss settlers’ church congregations held yearly sauerkraut dinners. In 2004, Mayor Alma Leonhardt told the Herald Journal that “the Depression and other events of the early 20th century caused many residents of our community to turn to sauerkraut as a dependable, nutritious food source when people really didn’t have a lot of other options.” He added that church fundraisers and other gatherings kept sauerkraut at the center of the table.

The 2004 festival fell in late September, on a Friday and Saturday. Supper was served at Spring Creek Middle School. Diners chose turkey and sauerkraut with mashed potatoes and gravy, or kraut dogs with salad and chips. A German folk band called the Bavarians played, and there was a puppet show and sauerkraut sampling. A Night Out Against Crime, with a K-9 demonstration, was held alongside the supper, and fireworks went up over Zollinger Park at 9. The Saturday parade began at 10 a.m. from 300 South Main, followed by a horseshoe tournament in the park.

By the city’s count, the 2024 festival, held August 12 to 17, was the third year of the celebration “in its reincarnated state.” That week Iron Gate Catering served bratwurst and hot dogs with Bear River Bottling sauerkraut. The children’s hours included a Flippenout aerial trampoline show and a mobile petting zoo, and Napoleon Dynamite played in the park. A Cache Valley Transit District bus carried the historic tour past old homes. The 2025 festival added a talent show called “Prov’s Got Talent” and a skateboarding competition at the city skate park, which had been finished the fall before.

Fifteen characters for a marker

Mayor Alder told the City Council on September 16, 2026, that the festival had been a success and credited Nicole Bone with organizing it. At the same meeting Brendan Lee presented a proposal for a historic marker. Lee is vice chair of the Historic Preservation Commission and a history instructor at Utah State University. The commission had first planned to apply to the William G. Pomeroy Foundation’s “Hungry for History” program. Because that program requires a recipe on the marker, the commission turned to the foundation’s “Hometown Heritage” grants instead. Lee’s three drafts tell the town’s founding through its Danish, Welsh, English, and Swiss German settlers, whose shared sauerkraut dinners are credited with uniting the early community. Staff with historical expertise added that the first settlers were mainly Campbell and Matthews families of Danish, Welsh, and English heritage, and that the Swiss Germans came later. Council Member Sealy preferred the second draft, which stresses that unity, and Council Member Kirk suggested adding a QR code that links to a fuller history. The council approved the resolution unanimously. Lee confirmed the grant timeline would allow an unveiling during Sauerkraut Days the following August. The marker allows five lines of twenty-seven characters and fifteen characters for the title, and “Sauerkraut Days” fills the title space exactly.