Redneck Games feature fireworks display

Display location:WITTENBERG
City:WITTENBERG
Date:Sept. 19.

Details: WITTENBERG -- Jeff Foxworthy couldn't hold a candle -- or in this case, a Roman candle -- up against Jerry Bamke, who owns Fireworks Country in Wittenberg. Bamke and his wife, Sally, are teaming with WDEZ to host the first Fall Fest Redneck Games on Sept. 19.

"I was looking for a way to get people together for a good time without them having to spend a whole lot of money," Jerry Bamke said.

The event will feature fireworks, lawnmower races, pig wrestling and a truck pull, among other activities.

Organizers estimate that 50 to 75 trucks will compete. The 300-foot-long solid clay track already is set.

Truck pull competitor Nick Gaeu of Merrill said the clay has to be kind of wet to make it sticky.

"The stickier, the better. Then you see drivers break stuff," Gaeu, 20, said. "That's what the spectators come to see, us drivers breaking stuff.

"It's not if it's gonna happen, it's when it's gonna happen," he said.

He competes in his Dodge 2500 diesel truck purely for the adrenaline rush.

"The open diesel class is so fun," he said. "We always say, 'Run what you brung, and hope you brung enough.'"

After failing to qualify in the pig wrestling competition at the Merrill fair this year, Amber Vlietstra, 22, of Weston said her team of co-workers at Saint Clare's Hospital is itching to try again.

"It's a blast. It's fun getting muddy and dirty," she said. "But the mud gets heavy once it's on your clothes, so running around trying to catch the pig is definitely a workout."

Bamke rents the pigs and builds his own mud pit. A four-person team has one minute to pick up the pig and put its chest on the barrel. Bamke said there are strict rules to protect the pigs from harm.

"It's just fun, slopping around in the mud," Bamke said.