FOCUS: April 18 event in Suwanee will be “legen-dairy”

By Lynne DeWilde | The City of Suwanee is hosting a sharp new event this spring. Suwanee’s Big Cheesy Festival on Saturday, April 18, will feature cooking demos as well as cheese and beverage pairings, on-site cheese sculpting, food trucks and other vendors offering cheese-related products (including grilled cheese doughnuts), an artisan market, human foosball tournament, and live musical performances, including headliner Cole Taylor, presented in cooperation with Kicks 101.5.

logo_suwanee2013This free event is from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Town Center Park. Featuring select vendors selling unique cheeses and complimentary products, the artisan market will be open from 2-6 p.m.

Events Manager Amy Doherty says: “We’re excited to be offering this event, which allows us to really embrace our cheesiness. Who doesn’t love food and music, and the human foosball games are going to be a blast. We hope everyone comes out.  We promise it’s going to be a ‘Gouda’ time.”

Sarah Kaufmann, aka the Cheese Lady, will be on hand creating an oversized cheese carving. Kaufmann earned a Guinness World Record for creating the world’s largest cheese carving at the 2011 Wisconsin State Fair – a 925-pound cheese roller coaster. She’ll educate the audience about cheese and, perhaps best of all, share edible samples from her carving.

The human foosball tournament, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., will have teams of six players (with up to two alternates allowed per team) vying for the title of “Big Cheese.” Youth ages 8-17 as well as adults may play. More information and registration forms are available at suwanee.com; the registration fee is $25/team. The deadline for registering is Friday, April 10.

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Kaufmann

Musical performances will kick off at 5 p.m. with Georgia-raised Colby Dee, who has been identified as “one to watch” by CM Chat, Got Country, and Country Rise. Georgia native Travis Denning, who has performed in Nashville several times this spring, and Loganville resident and Broken Bow recording artist Jordan Rager, who appeared on season two of The Voice, also will perform.

Headliner Cole Taylor, another Georgian, from Cuthbert, and an up-and-coming country artist, will take the stage at about 8:30 p.m. Taylor, a singer/songwriter who signed with Universal Music Publishing Group after being in Nashville just nine months, has a new extended play release, featuring “Break That Lonely” and penned Florida-Georgia Line’s single “Sippin’ on Fire.”

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