Press Release

November 14, 2024

Hutchinson, MN

 

The 9th Annual Land Castle Summer Extravaganza is returning late summer of 2025, hooking up to their fish houses and heading for the McLeod County Fairgrounds in Hutchinson September 11-13, 2025. The venue change is being made after the event saw record growth in the 2024 vendor area, requiring more vendor and commercial space, and following through on requests for indoor or covered vendor spaces.

 

Land Castle has called the Winstock Country Music Festival grounds just south of Winsted, MN home since the first event in 2017 and maintains a great working relationship with the Church of the Holy Trinity – Winsted, and the Winstock Committee.

 

Over the past 8 years, Land Castle has featured live music, a rustic bar setting, food vendors, a live trout fishing pond, dozens of ice fishing vendors, kids coloring contests, prize giveaways, and ice house camping for attendees to scratch the itch of using their ice fishing house for camping. The event also features dealerships and manufacturers showing off the latest innovations in the ice fish house world with demo trailers being shown at Land Castle. Both the wheel house world and portable ice house worlds come together for this special event.

 

“This is a move for the event I’ve been contemplating for a while.” according to Brandon Gatz, Event Director for the Land Castle Summer Extravaganza. “The Winstock Grounds have been a fantastic location for us to host the event over the past 8 years, and we have experienced a lot of growth in that time. The Winsted community has been a great host to us, and I have nothing but good things to say about Winsted and Winstock leadership. This move allows us to offer indoor and outdoor vendor space, clean bathrooms, and showers for event guests to use, along with indoor options for our music concerts in case of bad weather. It also gives the event access to a larger audience in the largest city of McLeod County”.

 

Poor weather created challenges during previous Land Castle events. Fighting mud and heavy rain in 2019, 2020, and 2022 the event has always moved forward no matter what the forecast or world threw at it. With plenty of indoor space available at the fairgrounds in Hutchinson, the venue change is welcomed by event and vendor organizers. The availability of indoor space ensures the event can be enjoyed no matter what the forecast shows, and that vendors can choose how to set up their displays while working within established guidelines. Hotel rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis for vendors, with details being published soon on the Land Castle website.

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“The cost of the facility overall is much higher than our previous home in Winsted and based on feedback during the event and with an online survey I sent to attendees, I felt this was an opportunity to make a change for the better. It does come at a price.” Gatz explained. “We will be launching about a half dozen new programs at the 2025 event including a fishing equipment swap meet, inflatables for kids, and we are bringing live music back for Saturday evening at Land Castle as well. We are going to make a big splash with our move to the Hutchinson community.”

 

The move to a new venue creates opportunity, to engage with new sponsors and become more involved in a larger community. Ticket prices, vendor spaces, and other event support opportunities at Land Castle 2025 will be posted on the event’s main website www.landcastlesummerfest.com within the next couple of weeks.

 

Follow the Land Castle Summer Extravaganza Facebook page and join the event mailing list that is available for sign up on the main website. The most up to date information will always be posted to the Land Castle Facebook page along with the website. Vendor and sponsor inquiries are accepted on the Land Castle Summer Extravaganza website starting December 1.