Kosciusko County Indiana Fat and Skinny Tire Festival
For three days in May, two Kosciusko County towns share one cycling weekend. The event is published most often as Fat & Skinny Tire Fest, the spelling its organiser prints with an ampersand, while the county visitors bureau writes Fat and Skinny Tire Fest and, on its May events page, Fat and Skinny Tire Festival. The organiser also shortens the name to FSTF. Riding is divided between Winona Lake and Warsaw, with the Village at Winona anchoring one end of the weekend and downtown Warsaw the other. Behind it stands Kosciusko County Velo, a volunteer cycling club printed short as KCV. The programme blends relaxed riding with genuine racing: a community ride linking the two towns, twilight racing beside the county courthouse, a countryside tour offering five route lengths, trail racing at the Winona Lake Trails, and a long list of activities aimed at children. Dated editions are documented for May 2022, May 2025 and May 2026, and the schedules published for the two most recent of those years show most clearly how the whole weekend fits together.
About the Festival
Kosciusko County Velo organises the festival, and the club’s volunteer character shapes everything about it. This is not a single race with side attractions but a layered weekend in which competitive riders, touring riders, families and curious spectators all find a place. Warsaw is the county seat of Kosciusko County, a point the visitors bureau’s own festival itinerary states directly, while Winona Lake, the second host town, is not the seat. The geography matters because the programme keeps moving between the two communities. The Village at Winona, in Winona Lake, hosts the Friday gathering points and the start and finish of the Saturday countryside riding. Downtown Warsaw hosts its own Friday coffee stop, the twilight criterium that loops three blocks by the county courthouse, and part of the opening celebration. The Winona Lake Trails carry the off-road racing. A cycling listing layer gives the Saturday tour a formal billing, the 21st Fat & Skinny Tire Fest Countryside Tour & Century, printed with its ampersand, which underlines how the touring ride sits at the heart of the weekend rather than at its edge.
Quick Facts
| Item | Details |
| Published name forms | Fat & Skinny Tire Fest; Fat and Skinny Tire Fest; Fat and Skinny Tire Festival; short form FSTF |
| Organiser | Kosciusko County Velo, printed short as KCV, a volunteer cycling club |
| Host towns | Winona Lake and Warsaw, in Kosciusko County, Indiana |
| County seat | Warsaw holds that role; Winona Lake does not |
| Main venues | The Village at Winona, downtown Warsaw and the Winona Lake Trails |
| Documented editions | 20 to 22 May 2022; 16 to 18 May 2025; 15 to 17 May 2026 |
| Saturday tour routes | Twelve, nineteen, thirty-nine, sixty-three and one hundred one miles |
| Documented free elements | The Friday Bike-to-Work Day festivities and the Festival Kick-off Party |
| General admission | No price for general entry appears in the sources checked, and no race-entry fees are recorded |
History
The documented record begins with the edition of 20 to 22 May 2022, covered by a regional news feature that billed that year’s gathering as FSTF 17. The same feature reported more than two thousand participants and between six thousand and seven thousand spectators, figures that belong to 2022 alone and to that feature’s reporting. After a gap in the layers checked, the county visitors bureau lists the festival among its major events for 16 to 18 May 2025, and its 2026 festival season page together with the county visitor guide for 2026 and 2027 place the next edition on 15 to 17 May 2026. The organiser’s schedule page likewise states that the 2026 festival was held in May. How far back the story runs before 2022 is a point on which the sources openly disagree. The 2022 feature states that the festival started 17 years ago in 2004. The cycling listing, however, bills the 2026 countryside tour as the twenty-first running of that ride, and a twenty-first edition in 2026 does not square with a 2004 start. Neither claim is adopted here as settled fact, and no founding year is worked out from either billing; readers are left with both statements, exactly as their sources give them.
What to Expect
The schedules published for 2025 and 2026 describe a weekend that opens gently on Friday and gathers speed from there. Friday is given to Bike-to-Work Day festivities, with free coffee and snacks served at a coffeehouse in the Village at Winona and at a stop in downtown Warsaw. Friday also brings the Festival Kick-off Party, built around a Community Critical Mass Ride that travels from the Village at Winona into downtown Warsaw and is joined by a BMX stunt show, children’s activities, food and beverage vendors and live music. Racing enters with a downtown twilight criterium run around three blocks by the county courthouse; in 2026 that race was printed as the Zimmer Biomet Downtown Criterium and billed as part of a Midwest Cup road series. Saturday belongs largely to the countryside tour and century, whose routes of twelve, nineteen, thirty-nine, sixty-three and one hundred one miles start and finish in Winona Lake and pass through Pierceton and other towns in the southern part of the county. Saturday also brings a series mountain bike race at the Winona Lake Trails, circuit road races, four-cross mountain bike and BMX races, and children’s activities including a bicycle-safety skills course, bicycle decorating, a scavenger hunt and bike-themed crafts. Sunday closes with village criterium races, a youth mountain bike clinic, children’s races and a corporate challenge cruiser race.
Planning Your Visit
Think of the weekend as two base camps rather than one. The Village at Winona holds the Friday coffee stop, the start of the mass ride, the whole of the Saturday touring start and finish, and the Sunday village racing. Downtown Warsaw holds the second Friday coffee stop, the end of the mass ride, and the twilight criterium beside the courthouse. Anyone following the full programme will move between the two towns, which are close neighbours within the county, so building the day around those movements saves backtracking. On cost, the fencing in the sources is precise and worth respecting. The organiser documents the Bike-to-Work Day festivities and the Festival Kick-off Party as free. Beyond those elements, the layers read publish no price for general entry to the festival, and they record no race-entry fees at all, so riders entering competitive events should confirm arrangements with the organiser rather than assume either free entry or a particular charge. Families should note how much of the programme is aimed at children, from the skills course and decorating to the scavenger hunt and Sunday’s children’s races, while experienced riders will plan around the longer Saturday routes, since the one hundred one mile option is a full day of riding in itself.
For a useful comparison, see the Knox County Indiana Vincennes Germanfest Festival for another county festival.
A Sample Itinerary
Friday suits a gentle arrival. Begin with coffee and snacks at the Village at Winona coffeehouse stop during the Bike-to-Work Day festivities, then join the Community Critical Mass Ride as it rolls toward downtown Warsaw for the kick-off party, the stunt show and the live music, and stay on for the twilight criterium around the courthouse blocks. Saturday is the riding day. Tour riders choose their distance early, with the shorter routes suiting families and the sixty-three and one hundred one mile options reserved for trained legs, all of them leaving Winona Lake and returning there after looping through Pierceton and the southern county. Those not touring can watch the mountain bike racing at the Winona Lake Trails or the circuit races, while children work through the skills course, the decorating and the scavenger hunt. Sunday winds the weekend down with the village criteriums, the youth mountain bike clinic, the children’s races and the light-hearted corporate challenge cruiser race, a finish that returns the emphasis to the village where the weekend began.
How It Compares
Two other Kosciusko County cycling events are easily confused with this one, and both are separate. The Winona Lake Trail Fest is also run by Kosciusko County Velo, but it takes place in October at the Winona Lake Trails and serves as a trail fundraiser, a different purpose and season from the May festival. The Rotary Tour Des Lakes, held in Syracuse in July, is another organiser’s ride in the same county and forms no part of this weekend. What sets the Fat and Skinny Tire Festival apart from both is its spread: three days, two host towns, and a programme that runs from a Friday coffee stop through road racing, touring, trail racing and children’s events, where the October and July events each concentrate on a single style of riding in a single place.
Checklist
- Decide early which Saturday route length suits your legs, from twelve miles up to one hundred one
- Plan Friday around both towns, with coffee stops in Winona Lake and downtown Warsaw
- Catch the Community Critical Mass Ride if you want the full opening celebration
- Keep Friday evening free for the twilight criterium beside the county courthouse
- Bring children to the skills course, bicycle decorating and scavenger hunt on Saturday
- Check the Winona Lake Trails schedule for the mountain bike racing
- Confirm any race-entry arrangements with the organiser, since no fees are recorded in the sources
- Leave Sunday room for the village criteriums and the corporate challenge cruiser race
Beyond the Festival
The weekend doubles as an introduction to its two host towns. In Winona Lake, the Village at Winona gathers the coffeehouse stop, the ride starts and the Sunday racing, while the Winona Lake Trails give the county a dedicated off-road venue a short distance away. Warsaw, the county seat, contributes its downtown blocks and the courthouse square area, where the twilight criterium turns three blocks of the county’s civic centre into a race circuit. The Saturday tour widens the picture further, carrying riders through Pierceton and other southern-county towns on roads most visitors would never otherwise travel. Nothing in the sources dresses these places up with claims beyond their roles in the weekend, and none is needed; the festival itself supplies the reason to see them.
Why the Festival Matters
A volunteer club sustaining a three-day festival across two towns is an achievement worth recording on its own terms. Kosciusko County Velo’s weekend gives competitive riders a criterium and a racing series, touring riders five distances of countryside, trail riders a dedicated venue, and children a programme of their own, all inside a single May weekend. The 2022 feature’s figures of more than two thousand participants and several thousand spectators, reported for that year, suggest how firmly the event had taken hold in the county by then. Its position matters too: one host town is the county seat and the other a lake village, and the festival’s signature ride physically links the two, turning local geography into part of the programme. The result is a county weekend built by the people who ride it, documented steadily by the visitors bureau and the organiser across 2022, 2025 and 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did the festival actually begin?
The sources disagree, and this article adopts neither side. A regional news feature published in 2022 states that the festival started 17 years earlier, in 2004, and billed the 2022 edition as FSTF 17. A cycling listing instead calls the 2026 countryside tour the twenty-first running of that ride, which cannot be reconciled with a 2004 start. Both claims are recorded exactly as their layers state them, with no founding year calculated from either.
Which parts of the weekend are documented as free?
The organiser documents two elements as free: the Friday Bike-to-Work Day festivities, with coffee and snacks at the Village at Winona and downtown Warsaw stops, and the Festival Kick-off Party built around the Community Critical Mass Ride. No price for general entry to the wider festival appears in the sources checked, and no race-entry fees are recorded, so the free label belongs only where the organiser places it.
Which towns and venues host the riding?
Two towns share the weekend. Winona Lake provides the Village at Winona and the Winona Lake Trails, while Warsaw, the county seat, provides the downtown streets and courthouse blocks. Winona Lake is not the county seat; that role belongs to Warsaw. The Saturday countryside tour starts and finishes in Winona Lake and passes through Pierceton and other southern-county towns along the way.
What route lengths does the Saturday countryside tour offer?
Five distances are published: twelve, nineteen, thirty-nine, sixty-three and one hundred one miles. The shorter options suit casual riders and families, while the longest is a full century ride. In 2026 the tour, held on the Saturday of the festival weekend, was billed by a cycling listing as the 21st Fat & Skinny Tire Fest Countryside Tour & Century.
What to Expect From the Next Kosciusko County Indiana Fat and Skinny Tire Festival
How often is Kosciusko County Indiana Fat and Skinny Tire Festival held?
The documented editions each occupy a single weekend in May: 20 to 22 May 2022, 16 to 18 May 2025 and 15 to 17 May 2026. The layers checked do not document editions for the years between those dates, so the honest summary is that every edition on record has been a May weekend, with the organiser and the visitors bureau publishing the dates year by year.
When is the next Kosciusko County Indiana Fat and Skinny Tire Festival?
The sources checked run through the edition of 15 to 17 May 2026 and give no date beyond it. Following the pattern of the documented years, a further edition would be expected in May, and the organiser’s schedule page and the visitors bureau’s season listings are where such a date would be published once set.
Will the dates change?
They have shifted before. The three documented editions fell on three different May weekends, moving from late May in 2022 to the middle of the month in 2025 and 2026. A future edition could therefore land on a different May weekend again, and the published listings for the year in question remain the authority.
Closing Thoughts
The Fat and Skinny Tire Festival earns its place in the county calendar by range rather than by any single headline event. A coffee stop, a mass ride between two towns, a twilight criterium, five touring distances, trail racing and a children’s programme all share one weekend, run by a volunteer club and documented carefully enough that even its disputed beginnings can be shown with both claims intact. For riders and spectators alike, the May weekend in Winona Lake and Warsaw offers a complete picture of what a local cycling community can build.
