WORLD’S BIGGEST POLKA DANCE

Click to SIGN UP TODAY: Cheese Days is looking for 850 dancers to shatter the record for World’s Biggest Polka Dance, and you’re invited to join the fun on Saturday, September 21 @ 2 PM. In-person registration station day of event (by INFO TRAILER) from 11 AM to 1:59 PM. Sign in and pick up your “World’s Biggest Polka Dance” collector button.

For immediate release April 3, 2024
POLKA DANCERS NEEDED TO BREAK WORLD RECORD

Remember back in 2014 when Cheese Days recruited more than 100 accordion players to play the Cheese Days Song to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the festival? Well, this year’s challenge for the 110th is going to be even bigger…

Ready, set, polka!

Cheese Days is looking for 850 dancers to shatter the record for World’s Biggest Polka Dance at the festival, and you’re invited to join the fun. The current record is 802 dancers, held by Crailsheim, Germany, in 2013.

The World’s Biggest Polka Dance will take place at the Cheese Days Festival on Saturday, September 21, at 2 PM. The timing couldn’t be better, with this year being the 30th anniversary of polka being named as the official state dance in Wisconsin.

Polka specialist, DJ Shotski (aka Stacy Harbaugh), will spin the records and the music will be heard all around the Historic Courthouse Square in downtown Monroe. You can polka with the Optimists while waiting in line for their famous deep-fried cheese curds, you can polka with a cheesemaker in the Cheese Tent, or you can polka with Cheese Days mascot, Wedgie, at the Martha Bernet Main Stage.

Sign up now, so Cheese Days can start counting dancers. Go to www.cheesedays.com and click on Schedules for the sign-up link.

On the day of the event, Cheese Days asks that all dancers officially register in person near the Information Trailer on the west side of the Square from 11 AM until 1:59 PM. Each dancer will receive a Cheese Days World’s Biggest Polka Dance collector button.

If you have questions about participating in the Cheese Days World’s Biggest Polka Dance, contact the Cheese Days office at 608.325.7771.

DJ Shotski (@djshotski) shares Dutchman-style polka records from Wisconsin and the upper Midwest on “Polka Time with DJ Shotski” on 98.7 WVMO Sunday nights at 7 p.m. and on radio stations across Wisconsin.

###

Green County Cheese Days

Back in 1914, the concept of Cheese Days originated from the notion that if some little town in Illinois could have a festival commemorating sauerkraut, then a celebration based on cheese would be an even better idea.

A group of local businessmen planned the festivities in just nine days, driving a roadster through the city of Monroe to publicize the event. A hand-lettered sign attached to the vehicle proclaimed “FIRST CHEESE DAY COMMITTEE 1914 – WE STARTED SOMETHING!”

And did they ever.

100 years later, we invite you to take part in our centennial Cheese Days 2014 – where old-world tradition has generated an out-of-this-world celebration.

Help us celebrate our Swiss heritage with traditional music, dance, drinks, food, and extraordinary cheese!