My first visit to Deerfield, Michigan....

A guy I work with, Ray, comes running down to my office on Friday all excited. "DUDE, you will never guess what is this weekend!!!"... One thing led to another, we both talked the wives into it, and soon we were off in a two car caravan to Deerfield, MI to the annual Deerfield Testicle Festival. Below is a video and my short review of the experience.



The festival was packed. Uncomfortably packed. Thousands of people drinking beer and eating bull balls. You bought the "balls" in a meal, where you received a pile of beans (like bean soup), coleslaw, gizzards and about 5 or 6 deep fried testicles. Meal was $8. For being several years into it, the whole thing was just poorly laid out. You walk into this huge hall and immediately have to get in line for tickets. There were tons of people wanting to get in just to drink, or out to leave, so there's this massive bottle neck of people coming in the door, bumping everyone that was trying to get tickets. For people just walking in off the street, the smashed shoulder to shoulder crowd was a bit intense. Not to mention the confusion trying to buy tickets and understanding their handwritten sign on ticket prices and how many tickets you needed to purchase items. I'll chalk it up as being amateur testicle festival goers. :)

We managed to figure things out, get our beer, our meal and retreat outside in the cold, where we chowed down our meal pretty quickly. The testicles were heavily battered and deep fried. It kind of reminded us of calamari, chewy, but a softer center. Jen wasn't impressed, and opted out of trying any. The meal wasn't much, small portions of everything, it left us wanting more after the small amount. I guess though, they have to leave enough for everyone, but don't go there expecting the meal to fill you up, be ready to eat two of the "meals."..

Oh yeah, and definitely don't bring your family. We spend our summers going to church festivals, beer festivals, city/town festivals, etc., and this is the first one I've been to that is definitely not family friendly. It was basically a big "lets get drunk" fest. Which, I have nothing against, I just wasn't prepared for it, so we didn't stick around too long.

Will I go back? Probably. If I can talk more friends into going next year, no family, bring lots of money for a couple of the meals, then maybe I'll go. It's definitely something to tell the kids about someday..., or, maybe it isn't. I can just see them going off to school telling the class "My dad ate balls!"...