Cream Cheese Fest draws record crowd

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

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LOWVILLE — A record-breaking crowd estimated at 15,000 people poured into downtown Lowville for the eighth annual Cream Cheese Festival. They dined on the nation’s largest cheesecake, a 3,500-piece marvel from Kraft, enjoyed seven hours of music and entertainment and participated in recipe contests and other family-friendly competitions.

Those competitions are odd. Or “wacky,” as they were called by TripAdvisor, which listed the festival as eighth in its Top 10 list of wacky summer events in America.

Many of those wacky events involved throwing, catching or stuffing another person’s face with cream cheese. About 600 pounds of cream cheese was used throughout the day.

The messy cream cheese activities were contained to specific areas, while vendors, food, games and music spread through the streets.

“The kids’ zone is a great idea. They split the whole thing up perfectly,” Joseph Marcel said of the layout of the festival while shopping at some vendors with his daughter Nadia. “It’s really a great family event.”

There were 20 new vendors this year, according to Catherine M. O’Brien, vendor coordinator.

While it was the Marcels’ first time at the festival, George A. Day, Chaumont, has brought his Smokey’s BBQ since the inaugural year.

“It’s grown every year,” Mr. Day said. “It just keeps getting better and better.”

Last year, he ran out of food to serve by 3:30 p.m. Because the event runs until 6 p.m. and a larger crowd was expected, “I brought double the food this year,” Mr. Day said. He again ran out by about 3:30 p.m.

Scott A. Smith, owner of Scotty’s Hot Dogs, agreed with the nearly double in food sales this year.

“It’s growing by leaps and bounds,” said James Smith, also of Scotty’s. “To me, it’s really a mini Remsen,” he said, referring to the Remsen Barn Festival.

Earlier in the week, the high volume of Internet traffic briefly shut down the festival’s website at www.creamcheesefestival.com,