Things to do in Clear Lake
Where to eat, what to rent, which beach — and how to find the crash site on the first try.
Summer
The Fourth of July is the week and has been since 1973 — a carnival ringing City Park, a 10am parade with a hundred-plus floats, the Freedom 5K, a water-ski show, and fireworks over the lake around ten, simulcast on local radio. If you want to understand this town, come that week. If you want to look at houses in peace, come almost any other.
Thursdays on Main runs late May to mid-August — bands from seven, a classic car cruise-in, food trucks, and things for children. Free, every week, and it's the most reliable evening out of the summer.
Also: the Municipal Band plays the bandshell at 4pm on Sundays through June and July, the farmers market is Saturdays 9–12 in the Surf car park with fifty-odd vendors, and there's an antique and classic boat show at the seawall in July.
Fall
The quietest and, if you ask me, the best of it. The water stays warm into September and the crowds go after Labor Day.
The Harvest Festival takes the first Saturday of October — wine and beer tasting, a champagne 5K, a grape stomp, a salsa contest and hay rides. The TRI Clear Lake triathlon runs in late August and was named Iowa's state championship race for 2026.
Winter
The town doesn't shut down, which surprises people.
The Winter Dance Party at the Surf has run every year since 1979 and is a genuine international pilgrimage — the next one is 3–6 February 2027. Live bands, dance lessons, and guided tours out to the memorial.
Christmas by the Lake takes the first weekend of December: tree lighting, horse-drawn carriage rides, a nativity display with hundreds of scenes, and a lighted parade down Main that finishes with fireworks over the lake.
Color the Wind is a kite festival flown from the frozen lake on the third Saturday of February, and it's the Midwest's largest. One honest caveat: it is held on lake ice and it does get cancelled — the 2026 edition was called off after a warm winter. Never plan a trip solely around it.
Ice fishing runs all season, and ice-out is a proper local institution — the city's water superintendent declares it, and there's a contest to guess the date. You'll have an opinion within one winter.
Spring
Mud, then everything at once. The Walleye Classic takes two days in early May, and the weigh-ins at City Park at 3pm are open to anyone who wants to watch. Docks go back in, the town wakes up over about three weeks, and by Memorial Day it's summer again.
The Chamber keeps the events calendar if you want to line a visit up with something.
Ask me anything
Text me before you come up and I’ll tell you what’s worth doing that weekend — what’s open, what’s on, and where to eat. No appointment and no pressure. I do it for people who have no intention of ever buying a house here, because that’s the town, not the job.
Places open, close and change their hours. Everything here was right when I wrote it — check with the venue before you drive across the state for it.