Oatmeal, Texas
A look at the Oatmeal Festival
Your "My Kind of Town" feature inspired me to tell of a summer event, the Oatmeal Festival, in a near-by town in the Hill Country of Texas, northwest of Austin.
It seems that Texas had removed the wee town of Oatmeal from its official map and a resident determined to get it back on. And so the Oatmeal Festival has taken place for 31 years, over Labor Day weekend.
It starts with a public barbecue in the Oatmeal, TX, pavilion Friday evening. Then on Saturday, there is a parade from Oatmeal to Bertran (5 miles) while a crop-duster plane overhead showers oatmeal on the participants. Once everyone is in Bertran the contest begins: oatmeal box stacking, cow pie kicking, tortilla tossing, mutton busting (children ride sheep rodeo-style, last one holding on wins).
There is barbecue again on Saturday, and vendors, and the cook-off.
Come enjoy!