PLYMOUTH — Plymouth, Wisconsin: the place to "brie" this New Year’s Eve. In true Dairy State fashion, the city is hosting its 16th annual cheese dropon Saturday night, sponsored by Sartori Cheese. The fire department will lower a giant metal block of cheese into the middle of a downtown intersection across from the Plymouth Arts Center.
Organizers say this is a staple in the “Cheese Capital of the World.”
“A lot of us you know, work at cheese factories and stuff like that,” said Kerrylynn Kraemer, administrative assistant at the Plymouth Arts Center. “So, it's near and dear to us.”
According to the city’s website, about 10-15 percent of the nation’s cheese is processed by Plymouth-based facilities.
But this cheese drop features more than just...cheese.
“It's kind of become more of a community event where we have a band here that you can come and see for free,” Kraemer said. “And we usually have a bonfire outside, and we've got cocoa, and people just come and gather and just catch up.”
Kraemer said she expects about 1,000 people to attend the event, which Cathy Eaton, a bookkeeper with the Plymouth Arts Center, said is all about coming together.
“It's just a wonderful community tradition that even when the weather is crazy, people parked across the street and watched from their cars and cheered when the cheese went down,” Eaton said.
The event is free to the public, and the first 250 attendees can receive a bag of Sartori cheese.
Festivities begin at 8:30 p.m., and the cheese drops at 10:00 p.m. But even after the drop, the “gouda” times will continue inside until midnight, when guests can celebrate with a champagne toast.
