MARATHON COUNTY, the United States, Aug. 14 -- The next International Wisconsin Ginseng Festival in September 2020 will continue to feature Chinese cultural performances and Chinese visitors, said Carly Hanney, sales and events manager of the Convention and Visitors' Bureau in the area of Wausau and Central Wisconsin.

The 2019 festival will be skipped to give organizers a break and it has been decided to make the festival a biennial event starting in 2020, Hanney said.

Preparations for the 2020 festival have been started and a lot of the layout will be similar to the first and second festivals in 2017 and 2018, respectively, Hanney told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"We try really hard to incorporate cultural entertainment" with the inclusion of a Chinese mask-changer and a traditional lion dance, Hanney said.

Those sorts of things are always really popular because it's not something that people who live here or who are from this state necessarily get to experience on a regular basis, said Hanney.

The festival in 2018 attracted around 5,000 participants, including hundreds of Chinese visitors, said Hanney.

A lot of visitors came from China because China is one of the major countries that purchase ginseng from this area, Hanney said.

"Certainly, we would love it if more international visitors came. But I think that's a market that we have yet to really tap into," Hanney added.

Marathon County of Wisconsin State contributes as much as 95 percent of ginseng exports from the United States thanks to its rolling hills, virgin soil and cool summers.

Ginseng roots are an important ingredient of traditional Chinese medicine, and is also used in beverages and food.

The festival also offers opportunities for field tours of ginseng farms, education seminars on the ginseng industry as well as exhibitions of ginseng products.