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1954 First official festival to raise funds for the North Hudson School.
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1955 An airplane dropped cash and candy for the kids, and the parade went from Coulee Road to North Hudson.
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1956 J.P. Patches, Casey Jones and Bill the Cook from WTCN-TV (Ch. 11) attended.
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1957 An elephant in the parade made a big mess on the street.
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1959 Dan Zezza made Lefsa-Ljetz-Italian Sausage wrapped in Norwegian Lefse.
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1963-1973? - Pepper Fest takes a hiatus
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1974 Pepper Fest returns; held in Sam’s Italian Restaurant parking lot.
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1976 Land for Pepper Fest Park bought by village; full Royalty coronation returns.
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1977 KSTP-TV & WCCO-TV covered the festival
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1980 Pepper eating teams: Sam’s Afterburners and Blond-Haired Italians. Miss Pepper Face rides in the parade.
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1982 Paper-mache pepper fell off float.
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1983 Festival opens with helium balloon release.
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1985 Pepper Fest float wins East Wind Award at St. Paul Winter Carnival.
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1988 90 m.p.h. winds close down the Fest immediately following coronation. An "I Survivied" party was held in September. New float designed; float wins award at Minneapolis Aquatennial.
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1989 Another Winter Carnival Award--The West Wind Award!
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1994 KARE-TV & WCCO-TV cover the Festival. Almost ran out of food!
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1995 July hailstorm damages pepper crop at Costa Farms in Stillwater-after some scrambling, peppers obtained through Twin Cities Produce.
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1996 Queen Alli Pawlenty sets record at Royalty Spaghetti Eating Contest-9 seconds for 1/2 pound!
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1997 Float was "redesigned" by Royal Families. Village Inn Hot Pepper Eating team takes 1st at Cumberland Rutabega Fest!
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1998 Royalty wins record 9 awards, including St. Paul Winter Carnival Queen of the Snows Award!
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1999 St. Paul Winter Carnival presents 1999 Royalty with King Boreas Award! King Ed & court truly have a HOT! HOT! HOT! summer with record breaking heat wave in July.
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2000 Pepper Festival gave back over $22,000 to the Hudson Area.
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2001 Grand Marshall Sam Ricci travels from Las Vegas to North Hudson to participate in the Grand Parade.
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2002 Festival begins slowly as rain puts a damper on Friday night festivities.
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2003 King Dave has accident prone reign. Ask him to show you his battle scar from the fight with the float pepper leaf. And beware to have him on our bed racing team - sometimes he has trouble staying on his feet!
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2004 Pepper Fest Celebrates 50 years of HOT STUFF!
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2005 A crow causes a power outage on Saturday afternoon. Peppers are especially "zippy" this year.
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2006
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2007 Rain throughout the weekend puts a damper on festivities. The coronation is held in the Bingo tent due to rain.
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2008 The world famous Budweiser Clydesdales make an appearance in the Grand Parade. And the North Hudson Village Hall debuts an addition and remodel causing a new layout for the Pepper Fest festivities.
