Live music at the Street Dance, April 25.
In 1976, with towns across the country marking the nation's bicentennial, Rhine mayor J. T. Williams wanted his town to join in. He brought the idea to Theron McCranie, who carried it to the teachers at Rhine Elementary School — and by that June, the town had its first festival: a pageant in colonial-era costume, an invocation, and a parade down Church Street led by the Dodge County High School Band. A downpour hit right as the parade stepped off; the crowd pushed through it, and a community supper capped the evening.
The following spring it became an annual event — the Pondtown Spring Festival — and within a few years had settled into its April date, with arts and crafts, a parade, and evening entertainment. In 1986, WMAZ co-sponsored the festival with meteorologist Bill Powell as guest. By 1991, the 16th Pondtown Festival doubled as Rhine's 100th birthday celebration, held over three days with a citywide worship service.
Five decades on, it's still the volunteers of Rhine — church groups, civic clubs, school families — who put the festival on each year.