It’s just January but the Hog Days Committee is already gearing up for Hog Days 2025. Choosing a tagline is job number one and Committee Co-chair Larry Flannery thinks they found a good one.

At a Christmas lunch, Flannery was talking with his coworkers and requested their help in coming up with a festival tagline.

“They were throwing things out there and they zeroed in on it,” he said.

Oftentimes, Flannery said they take titles or lines from oldie songs, which makes it easier for organizations to use the music and adapt it with a different take. This year’s song should work well, he said.

Pulling from a classic hit song from the 1980s, Flannery said the group settled on a Cyndi Lauper song, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” The tagline for Hog Days 2025 will be “Pigs Just Wanna Have Fun.”

While the committee, which meets this month to begin to hammer out festival details, has yet to officially vote on the tagline, Flannery doesn’t think it will be an issue.

“There’s not a whole lot of seriousness put into it,” Flannery said, noting that over the years taglines have come from a number of places including suggestions from residents.

Now that the tagline has been settled, the committee will begin to roll up its sleeves for the real work of planning and organizing the annual Labor Day festival. Flannery said in January, committee members begin to define their roles.

“January will be making sure everyone knows what their job is and seeing if anyone wants to change jobs,” he said.

The committee will also set the budget, although Flannery said at this stage of planning the budget is somewhat fluid and allows for increases in areas such as entertainment that may be needed if Co-chair Mike Komnick were to secure a really great group, he said.

February is when the committee begins to look at the festival costs, while March and April, planning gets down to the “hardcore nuts and bolts,” and purchasing supplies such as charcoal begins, said Flannery.

Kewanee Hog Days is scheduled this year for Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2025.