Additional security will be on hand for CheeseFest in Doyle Park, in Little Chute, to help deter any issues inside the festival grounds and in the surrounding neighborhoods. PC: Fox 11 Online
LITTLE CHUTE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The summer festival season is underway, and after an incident at CheeseFest in Little Chute last year, police are making some changes ahead of this year’s event.
In June 2024, a Little Chute man was hospitalized following a fight among several CheeseFest attendees. The brawl was outside the festival grounds, but spilled into the man’s yard.
When the man tried to break up the fight, he was attacked. With the help of surveillance footage, police were able to identify the teen suspect, who has since moved out of state.
For decades, the Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival has brought thousands of people to Little Chute. It’s an event many in the community enjoy.
“We love it. We sit out on the porch and we get family together, we cook out and the grandkids go down there. It’s a fun weekend,” said Jean Peters of Little Chute.
But in recent years, some residents in the neighborhood around Doyle Park, where the festival is held, have had issues. Everything from litter in their yard, to damage to their property, to their driveways being blocked
According to Jim Davis of Little Chute, “Had to ask several people, ‘Can you at least move it so I can get in and out of my driveway?’ Some of them are like, ‘No problem.’ Others are like, this kind of business. And I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m being nice here’ and that’s all I ask of other people.”
But in the incident last year, when a good Samaritan tried to break up a fight in his own yard, the angry mob turned on him.
The victim, who only wanted to be identified as Keith, said he suffered a head injury that required more than a dozen staples after being thrown head first into a tree. He also tore a ligament in his hand that required surgery.
That has led to changes at this year’s festival.
“We had a thorough conversation with the membership, CheeseFest board, last year to discuss both our response to the festival grounds and then the surrounding area, and just kind of reevaluate what our priorities are,” said Lt. Mark Wery with the Fox Valley Metro Police Department.
The biggest change, according to police, will be additional security. CheeseFest is bringing in an outside agency with more personnel to help patrol the park.
Wery said, “With the addition of a uniformed security team that they will have on site, as the event is closing, our officers don’t necessarily have to focus on getting people out of the park. It’s closing time. We can now focus our efforts into the surrounding communities — which is where we’ve been a little bit limited in years past.”
The hope is the presence of additional police officers in high visibility areas off park grounds will reduce the number of incidents.
“We had a decent amount of success with that with just both flow of traffic, noise complaints. All those sort of things seemed to subside some last year with that approach for Paperfest and so we’re going to apply that to CheeseFest this year,” added Wery.
CheeseFest runs June 6-8.
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