Mendota Sweet Corn Festival

08/14/2026

Thank you for your patience- we are happy to announce that the tally is in- Congratulations to our Sweet Corn Festival Parade Winners!

Grand Marshals of the Parade: Matt and Vickie Gehm.

Our Commercial AND “Best Use of Sweet Corn” trophy for first place goes to Pizza's by Marchelloni!

Our Musical and Performance trophy goes to the Mendota Marching Band!

Our Organization first place trophy goes to Starved Rock Jeep!

The Queen’s Choice Award goes to Advanced Drainage systems.

The Grand Marshal Award goes to the Mendota Boys Soccer Team.

Here is the full award list:

Commercial:
Pizzas by Marchelloni
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Craig’s Cycle Therapy

Best use of Sweet Corn:
Pizzas by Marchelloni

Music and Performance:
Mendota High School Marching Band
Ramiro Salinas

Organization:
Starved Rock Jeep
CASA of the Illinois Valley
Central K-9 Team

Antique Tractor Awards go to:
Hamrick
Kittelson

08/14/2026

What a great video - thank you David Menez for sharing this online! This is a video of the full 79th Annual Mendota Sweet Corn Festival Parade! Please tag David if you know him!

Now you can watch the parade over and over all year long. What a treat!

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

08/11/2026

Our 2026 Mini Royalty!

Mini Queen: Everly Pawlowski
Mini King: Graham Eich

Aren’t they so cute! 🥰🌽💚

08/11/2026

Congratulations to our 2026 50/50 Winners! Thank you for participating, everyone!

Grand Prize ($11,041): Bradley Wulf
Consolation Prize ($500): Heather Pizano
Consolation Prize ($500): Kim Krenz
Consolation Prize ($500): Janna Cox

08/10/2026

Another year in the books. Tomorrow morning our town will be back to its normal self. The transformation is incredible.

Thank you to everyone who participated, attended, and volunteered.

Don’t you just love Mendota though? I overheard so many people saying “Oh I grew up here” or “We always come to see family during the festival.” It’s like one big family reunion every year. Whether you are from here, or you just decided to come for the first time- Thank you, and have a wonderful year.

We’ll see you next year for the 80th Annual Festival! 80 years of Ears!

🌽🩷🌽

08/10/2026

Our Grand Prize and Consolation Prizes have been awarded! We just happened to have a video of our winner from earlier in the week and he already had that winner energy! Thank you for making this fun for us! 🌽🩷🌽🩷🌽🩷🌽

08/09/2026

08/09/2026

Final Pot!

08/09/2026

Pot update!

08/09/2026

Update!