world’s largest bratfest and a marathon?

You are looking at a world record. The brat you see before you is one of the 209,376 brats served at the World’s Largest Bratfest in Madison,WI.

Bratfest is probably my favorite food festival. I loved going to it in college, and was thrilled this year to attend and share it with you.

Every Memorial Day weekend Madison has two events. Bratfest and the Marathon. Yes there is a marathon on the same weekend that people are shooting for a world record for consuming the most bratwursts in a 4 day period. Seems a little strange? It is perfect, you can burn off all the brats you will eat in going for a new world record! The marathon starts at the Capitol square and used to finish at Bratfest, but this year it stopped and started at the Capitol (and yes those two runners run the half marathon in mustard and ketchup outfits every year).

I ran the half marathon back in 2007 and finished the run at Bratfest. Naturally, I celebrated with a brat and a beer. This year I was not going to run, but my old roommate, Nick, did.

Yay Nick you finished! (Dan here is proof that he ran). Enough with the marathon, now onto the Brats.

It takes a lot of grills and man power to grill 200,000+ Brats.

Mmmm delicious. Look at the brat up close!

O and of course you must include a cold beverage.

If one brat is not enough for you, then you can go for the Double Johnny. 2 brats on one bun!

Well, here are two satisfied customers.

As you can see Nick is much happier, and I have to give the double johnny a thumbs up! If you like brats or food festivals in general then Bratfest is the place for you! If you run the marathon before it then you can eat as many as you like!