MONROE, Wis. — Green County Cheese Days will return to downtown Monroe Sept. 18-20, bringing one of Wisconsin’s largest food festivals back to the Historic Courthouse Square with several new attractions mixed into more than a century of cheesemaking, dairy and Swiss traditions.

The biennial festival traces its roots to 1914 and has grown far beyond a local celebration. Attendance estimates have reached 100,000 people over the three-day weekend — roughly 10 times Monroe’s population — while the modern festival spreads activities across the courthouse square, nearby streets, Turner Hall, the Green County Fairgrounds and farms outside the city.

Cheese remains at the center of it all. The weekend includes the Cheese Tent, old-fashioned copper kettle cheesemaking, deep-fried cheese curds, gourmet grilled cheese and other festival foods, along with opportunities to meet farmers, see livestock and take guided countryside and farm tours. Travel Wisconsin describes Cheese Days as the oldest food festival in the Midwest and lists three stages of entertainment along with a vintage tractor show, Cheese Days Chase races, children’s activities and the Family Farm Adventure Tent.

But organizers are giving even longtime Cheese Days visitors several things they have never seen before in 2026.