St. Paul Park’s Heritage Days Festival is going to have a decidedly different feel this year.

The city’s annual festival is moving out of downtown to Heritage Park – and it will have a more family-friendly focus, said St. Paul Park City Council member Tim Conrad, who is helping spearhead the changes.

The festival, which runs Friday-Sunday, includes a parade, kids’ activities, outhouse races, a tractor pull, live music, a craft fair, mud volleyball and a car and motorcycle show, he said.

Conrad said he decided to help revamp the festival after talking to voters last fall while campaigning for city council. “People said they didn’t want to bring kids to events that were surrounded by alcohol,” he said. “They kept saying, ‘When can we get a Heritage Days that is a community event and not just a bar event?’”

During a candidates’ forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters last fall, Conrad said he was asked what he would do to build “community unity.” “I said, ‘I want to revive Heritage Days and make it a family event.”

Mayor Keith Franke is holding his annual contests again this year. There will be an egg toss, balloon toss and a mustache contest. “We go around and round people up for the mustache contest,” Franke said. “We’re looking for the longest mustache, the neatest mustache, the bushiest beard and the most unique.”

Franke said he is looking forward to a great weekend. “I’ve always advocated for Heritage Days to be more family-friendly and more inclusive,” he said. “I’m glad people have been stepping up to make that happen. It’s a great time. I love running those contests. You get a grandmother and a toddler tossing eggs at each other. People love it.”

Outhouses out of storage

One extra-special attraction this year will be the Outhouse Races, which are back on the schedule after a 12-year absence, Conrad said. Teams will compete from 5-5:30 p.m. Saturday at Heritage Park.

Willie Tennis is the co-owner of St. Paul Park-based Tennis Sanitation and the keeper of the outhouses. He has kept the two outhouses, which are on wheels and pulled with ropes, stored at his business all these years – just in case, he said.

Teams of five compete in the contest: Four people pull the outhouse with the ropes and one person – who is generally the lightest of the crew – sits on the “throne” honking a loud horn, Tennis said.

“They go down 100 feet and then turn around and come back,” he said. “The trick is making the corner as fast as you can and then running back.”

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The winning team gets a trophy, a $40 credit at one of the beverage tents and, of course, bragging rights, said Cindy Domeier, one of the committee members. “The whole idea was the camaraderie of winning it and celebrating with a beverage,” she said.

Four teams had signed up to participate as of 6 p.m. Wednesday; organizers can handle eight teams in all. There is no charge for teams to enter; teams can sign up until an hour before race time, she said.

“We’re really looking for other people to sign up and participate,” she said. “We don’t want anyone to be a party pooper.”

For more information about Heritage Days Festival in St. Paul Park, go to sppheritagedays.com.