Craving chocolate? There's only one place you need to be this weekend -- Burlington
BURLINGTON -- Memorial Day is Monday -- which means most of you will be grilling up hot dogs and burgers. But not in Burlington! They're craving chocolate. Linda Fellenz with the Burlington Chocolate Festival joined the Studio A team with more.
About ChocolateFest (from website)
In 1985 Bill Branen, Jack Berry, and Dave Wright of the Burlington Standard Press along with Henry Spreaha and Henk Hasert of Nestle, Mayor Marty Itzin and the Burlington Area Chamber of Commerce, brainstormed a way to draw tourists to Burlington and to celebrate Nestle’s 20th anniversary of doing business in Burlington. They capitalized upon the idea that most people love chocolate!
With Nestle’s help, they planned and marketed a Chocolate Festival and gave Burlington the nickname of “Chocolate City U.S.A.”. The first actual festival was in May of 1987 and entertainment was hosted at local school auditoriums and athletic fields. The big act that first year was the Kingston Trio. By 1988 Hershey’s had taken the City to court over its nickname, “Chocolate City U.S.A.”, which took a couple of years and much publicity, including an article in the Wall Street Journal, to resolve. After the first year, the Festival date was moved to the third weekend in May (the weekend after Mother’s Day).