Tomahawk's 61st Venison Feed Runs on Donated Deer, and It Runs Out Fast

If the Venison Feed runs from 11:30 to 2:00, why does anyone who has been before show up at 11:30 sharp?

The 61st Annual Venison Feed is set for Friday, November 20, 2026, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the west end of West Wisconsin Avenue. Free venison burgers and soda are served until they're gone, and beer is for sale. The burgers start as donated venison, so the supply on the grills depends on what comes in during the weeks before the feed.

The listing says 2:00, but the burgers rarely last that long

At last year's 60th feed, WJJQ reported that the event usually goes through about 1,500 burgers in an hour. The station summed it up: "It's not fast food, but the food goes fast." According to WSAW's 2025 coverage, more than a thousand people come down to West Wisconsin Avenue the Friday before the nine-day gun season. Do the math on those two numbers and you get a burger and a half per person at most. That's enough for most people to get one, but not enough to last into the afternoon.

The calendar gives the event a longer window than the food does. The City of Tomahawk approved the 2026 permit with open intoxicants waived inside the event area from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The street stays an event space well after the grills go quiet. People who arrive at 1:30 will still find booths, beer and company, but if last year is any guide, the burgers will be gone by then.

A meal assembled from freezers, a Merrill processor and volunteer grills

The supply is short because of how the feed is put together. Based on how the 2025 feed worked, the chain looks like this:

1. Donations come in first. In late October 2025, Chamber director Charis Lau said on WJJQ that the Tomahawk Regional Chamber of Commerce was taking donations of cleaned, deboned venison, dropped off at the Chamber office during regular hours. As of mid-October, no 2026 call for donations had been published, so watch for one from the Chamber.
2. Geiss Meats processes it. The 2026 listing again says all the meat is processed by Geiss Meats. The family-owned meat service is located at W4490 Pope Road in Merrill. In 2025, that work turned donated venison into the 1,500 patties.
3. Local businesses and community members grill it. WJJQ noted that many grillers add their own seasonings, toppings and condiments, and the station's staff runs a grill of its own.
4. It's served in front of the Post Office on Main Street starting at 11:30 a.m., per WJJQ's 2025 report.

Every step relies on volunteers or donations, which is why the event can't simply order more meat when the crowd is big. The feed has also grown beyond burgers. In recent years, other community groups have joined with their own fundraisers. For 2026, the listing names booths from Future Business Leaders of America and the Department of Natural Resources.

Sixty years of the same sponsors and the same Friday

The feed works on donations because it has had steady local backers for a long time. The 2026 sponsors are WJJQ, Duwayne Kreager Insurance, the City of Tomahawk, Bethel Excavating/Northern Wisconsin Land Services, Country Financial, Wausau Homes/John J. Schoone Construction, NorthStar Restoration and Park City Credit Union. Compare that with the Tomahawk Leader's 2023 preview of the 57th feed, and four names appear both years: Bethel Excavating, DuWayne Kreager Insurance, Park City Credit Union and WJJQ. Other sponsors have changed over those three years, but those four have stayed.

The same Leader article covers the history. The first event was called the Deer Cookout and was held in 1966. It began as an evening event, then moved to the afternoon and took its current name. WSAW reported that it's now the city's second-longest-running tradition, after Pow-Wow Days. The Chamber's listing says it always falls on the day before the gun deer season opens. In WJJQ's account, Lau compared it to a family reunion where locals and out-of-towners trade stories at the west end of Main Street. Many of them hunt, and some come just for the food and the scene. The Leader's 2023 preview invited people to wear blaze orange.

Downtown events at both ends of the hunt

The Venison Feed opens the 2026 deer season downtown, and Hometown Christmas comes at the other end. Wisconsin DNR lists the 2026 nine-day gun deer season as November 21 through 29. Tomahawk Hometown Christmas, Inc., a 501(c)(3), has its first day on November 28, the last Saturday of the hunt.

According to the event plan filed with the city, VFW Post 93 and Vickie's Photo Shop are sponsoring pictures with Santa at the VFW on November 28. Wagon rides will loop along 5th Street, Washington Avenue, Rice Avenue and East Wisconsin Avenue. The tree lighting is at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and 4th Street, with music, treats and hot beverages. East Wisconsin Avenue will be barricaded in front of Crossbridge Community Bank for the lighting. The application estimates more than 1,500 people will attend. That's about the same as the Venison Feed's burger count, and above the Lions Club's estimate of 1,000+ for its August Thrilla on the Grilla on the same street.

The December 11 parade has a change this year. The 2026 plan asks for barricades at Wisconsin Avenue and Tomahawk Avenue so traffic coming off State Highway 86 can't turn onto Wisconsin Avenue while the parade is running. Parade lineup will run east to west, and alleyways stay open the whole time. If you live or park near the west end of downtown, plan for detours between 4 and 6 p.m. that Friday.

Before the drive out of town

The DNR booth at the feed is a good place to ask about the season, and two standard DNR procedures come up for anyone who fills a tag that week. DNR offers free testing for chronic wasting disease on Wisconsin-harvested deer. Its self-service kiosks are open 24/7 and take a deer head with five inches of neck attached. Kiosk locations can change during the season, according to DNR, so check the DNR's sampling locator before you head out. DNR also lists sampling through cooperating processors and taxidermists, at-home lymph node extraction, and appointments with local DNR staff. Registration happens through GameReg, and DNR's deer page says it's due by 5 p.m. the day after the deer is recovered. This is general information, not legal advice, and the DNR's current regulations are the final word on your own hunt.

Most of our work at United Country Real Estate | Northern Wisconsin Lifestyle Properties is on hunting land, timber and the access and habitat questions that decide whether a parcel actually holds deer. If you're thinking about land around Tomahawk for next season's opener, or want an honest look at the acreage you already hunt, schedule a consultation with Matt and Brittany.