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Next year’s Holmen Kornfest will have a different look — if it is held at all.

For years, Kornfest has motored along with an element of familiarity to it. The beer tent goes here, the stage goes there, the corn and chicken is served here, the carnival rides and games go there. But after this year’s Kornfest wraps up on Aug. 17, work will begin on a makeover for Halfway Creek Park, where much of the festival happens.

Holmen American Legion Commander Tom Phillips, who is heading up this year’s festival, is dubious about whether Kornfest can be held next year with all the changes in the park.

“Right now it’s in limbo for next year. ... It might be our last year and it might not,” said Phillips, who figured the odds are 50-50 that Kornfest will return.

“I hate to make people think there’s not going to be another Kornfest, because there could be,” he added. “We’ll just have to look at it and see what we can do.”

One of the main changes in the park will be the location of the beer tent and stage. The paved area where the beer tent has been set up for years will turn into grass and Phillips said the stage will be displaced by a berm that will serve as an additional seating area for an amphitheater planned for a later phase of the park improvements.

In addition, ornamental plantings will put some limits on where carnival attractions can go. And the open-air shelter on the south side of the park where people have taken refuge to eat their corn and chicken will be torn down to make way eventually for a better shelter.

The park plans have been in the works for years, and the village has sought input from the Legion throughout the process, said Holmen Village President John Chapman and Parks and Recreation Director Mike Brogan.

“Before the process started I said, ‘Let’s keep the Legion involved,” Chapman said. “We’d like to have them use the park, absolutely. We support the Kornfest 100 percent, always have.”

On the other hand, said Brogan, planning for the makeover of Halfway Creek Park to make it the jewel in Holmen’s crown had to look beyond Kornfest. After all, he said, Kornfest is only three days a year.

In a way, Brogan said, Kornfest is at the heart of the park improvement campaign. The whole thing got jump-started about five years ago when the Legion decided to build a new stage for Kornfest, and village officials started to take a closer look at the park.

Legion officials have been at most park planning meetings, Brogan said, but the problem is it has not always been the same people attending and the Legion people at the meetings haven’t always been on the same page.

“We aren’t trying to kill Kornfest,” said Chapman. “They’re welcome to use the park. They look upon it like it’s their property and they only use it once a year. We want to enhance that park so people can use it all year around.”

Jim Hewitt, one of the Legion representatives who sat in one park planning meetings said he’s not worried about Kornfest not coming back next year.

“I’m optimistic about the outcome of it. I try to stay positive. Hopefully, everything will turn out,” he said. “I’m positive about Kornfest continuing and positive about the whole issue in general. The village and the Legion committees have worked well together and it’ll all work out.”

Meanwhile, all the preparations for this year’s 45th annual Kornfest are nearly complete. The Legion’s work on the festival begins soon after the previous Kornfest ends, including recruiting sponsors for the Friday night fireworks and the Sunday night free concert by a major recording artist — this year its Restless Heart, a popular country band that is still going strong more than 20 years after breaking into the big time.

And the Legion isn’t the only one involved, either. The Holmen Lions Club organizes the parade and the car show and the Knights of Columbus organize a Saturday morning fun run and Sunday morning breakfast.

This is the second year of Phillips term as commander, a position he took on about 15 years after serving his first term as the Legion’s leader. He’s hopeful that this year’s weather will cooperate, and it will be if it follows the pattern.

Last year’s Kornfest, the first of Phillips’ current reign, was a soggy affair, and so was the Kornfest Phillips oversaw during his first year as commander. “My first year as commander it rained so hard you had to wear boots to go through the corn line,” he said.

The next year after his first rain-soaked Kornfest, though, the weather was perfect, so Phillips is counting on history to repeat itself.

“I’m expecting good weather this time,” he said.

Contact Randy Erickson at randy.erickson@lee.net or (608) 786-6812.