Following news last month that Waterloo’s annual German tradition was no more, a number of locals are looking to breathe new life into the event, filled with passion for Porta Westfalica Festival.

As of now, new organizers are still planning to hold Porta Fest on Tuesday evening, June 16.

The effort is being spearheaded by Maddie Hart of Sister Cities of Porta Loo, who represented the organization alongside Deb Cummins on the festival’s organizing committee.

Hart spoke to her personal connection to the event and emphasized the need she feels to keep it alive both for the community’s heritage and to help keep the Sister Cities exchange program going.

“My great aunt, Vera Kohlmeier, is the one who started Sister Cities and Porta Westfalica Fest,” Hart said. “It’s not about the money, and the other organizations just did not think it grossed enough to be worthwhile. It’s not about the money. It’s about a sense of community, heritage… As long as we’re making enough to send our students, I think it’s worth doing.”

Hart acknowledged that the event’s cancelation was somewhat expected before the official announcement several weeks ago given the difficulties getting everything set up.

Still, she’s decided to see what might be possible to ensure this isn’t a year without a Porta Fest.

She described a meeting last Wednesday at Stubborn German which saw around 35 attendees who were in support of maintaining the tradition.

Hart was optimistic about the ideas and enthusiasm that came from this meeting.

In considering potential changes to make sure some version of the festival is still possible, she indicated one of the bigger changes could be removal of the beer stand which has long been an expensive and volunteer-heavy attraction.

Instead, she said, downtown businesses might bring some of their services outside, hopefully increasing sales for the day while contributing some toward Sister Cities.

“It helps them by boosting their sales,” Hart said. “It helps us by not having to go through extra permits and insurance, trying to keep everything as local as possible.”

Speaking further to that idea, Hart emphasized the plan to keep food vendors within Monroe County as well so as to support businesses in the area and maintain a sense of community.

Potato pancakes are planned for the menu, with further hopes for brats and pork steaks as well as some additional German options, pretzels and strudel.

“Hoping to get more German-influenced food other than the carny stuff that we’ve had in the past,” Hart said.

Entertainment is anticipated to be much the same, with the Busch Light Brigade, Waterloo Municipal Band and Waterloo German Band expected to perform.

A number of other ideas have been thrown around such as a stein-holding contest, sidewalk chalk, scavenger hunt and possibly even a yodeling contest.

“A lot of it isn’t gonna be big companies coming in,” Hart said. “Just something backyard-type. Come hang out with your friends downtown. Listen to some music, get some food, watch the parade.”

On the subject of the parade, Hart said there are plans to open up entries outside of Waterloo.

The Porta Fest parade has long been Waterloo-centric while the homecoming parade was more open. The latter event being canceled, Hart suggested it seems like a good opportunity to open up the German-themed parade a bit more.

To that same end, she spoke about plans to involve other area Sister Cities organizations with this festival.

“It’s nice representation,” Hart said. “A lot of them are local, too. And if people are coming, they can see, ‘Oh hey, there’s a Sister Cities local to me.’”

Altogether, Hart summarized her plans to streamline festival organization, cutting back on items that require prohibitive up-front costs or volunteer hours.

Though nothing is set in stone for now, hopes are high for the celebration of Waterloo’s German heritage.

“I’m hoping by cutting out some of the big-ticket items that require a lot of staff, it’ll make it more feasible to put on in the future,” Hart said. “Cutting the beer down would easily save 30 people from volunteering, and not having to have someone there to watch the inflatables… Scaling it back in that sense and letting the businesses do their thing prevents a lot of management needing to happen. I’m hoping by doing it this way, it’s easier for someone to take over in the future.”

For more information on how to get involved in this year’s Porta Westfalica Festival, email madellenhart@gmail.com.