MATTOON - What would convince a group of college students, night owls all, to wake up on a Saturday morning and hit the road?

"This whole bag of bagels," said A.J. Schubert, a senior at Eastern Illinois University, who with six friends from the Charleston school drove 15 minutes and joined the queue of early risers in Mattoon's Peterson Park for the annual bagel giveaway.

Whether they came for the free food or just to spend time with family and friends, hundreds of people lined up for the World's Biggest Bagel Breakfast in what is arguably one of the most popular events at the Bagelfest celebration.

Boxes full of Lender's Bagels quickly emptied, as did containers of cream cheese, jelly and margarine, as the crowd filed through the park's DeMars Center and then took seats at tables inside and outdoors - or on the concrete slab of the Rotary Bandshell, the makeshift dining area for the seven EIU students.

"This is breakfast, lunch and dinner for us," said Matt Page, a sophomore from Charleston, a plastic grocery sack full of bagels secured on his lap.

He has awakened for the breakfast "every year since I was a little kid," he said, adding that it was his idea to bring along the troupe of friends Saturday morning.

It was the first Bagelfest breakfast for Emily Sabbath, a junior from the Chicago suburb of Evergreen Park, and Brianna Barger, a junior from Terre Haute, Ind.

"It's a really small town, but I really like it," Sabbath said.

"It's cute," Barger added.

Neoga residents Rami Mayhall, her 3-year-old son Reid and her mother, Gayanne Mayhall, make the Bagelfest breakfast a yearly tradition, but it was the first such venture for Rami Mayhall's fiance, Michael Clark, and his daughter, 9-year-old Kyra, who recently moved to the Neoga area from Decatur.

"We wanted to get them broken in to the family tradition," Gayanne Mayhall said.

Rami Mayhall said her son was so excited about the World's Biggest Bagel Breakfast that he had difficulty sleeping Friday night, so she asked him to think of it like Christmas Eve - the faster sleep arrives, the sooner the payoff.

"But he woke up this morning and asked where Santa Claus is," Mayhall said with a laugh.

Vic and Linda Seeley of Mattoon have yet to miss a Bagelfest breakfast. This year, they added something new to the union of bagels, cream cheese and jelly: the house specialty from the Rodgers Fresh Cut French Fries booth.

Along with free bagels and some brisk strawberry lemonade from another vendor on the Bagelfest midway, a meal of fries and ketchup is a yearly occurrence for the Seeleys, but they feared they would not have a chance to visit Rodgers later Saturday.

"These are about as good as fried potatoes for breakfast," Vic Seeley saod.

As for the bagels, he added, "The only that would be better is if they had a toaster out here."

For Bekki and Bob Stevens of Sullivan, trying the bagel breakfast for the first time was an impulsive decision, as they were in Mattoon on Saturday mainly for the yard sales across the city.

The Stevenses rarely eat anything but cereal for breakfast, although the experience at Bagelfest may have changed that. "Bagels would be easy to eat before you go to work," Bekki Stevens said.

Margaret Floyd of Charleston said she and her husband, Tom, have attended the bagel breakfast "forever."

"It's a great time," she said. "I really enjoy the bagels."

Breaking with the past, the Floyds tried whipped spread this time. "It's not as good as the cream cheese," Margaret Floyd said.

Nathaniel West can be reached at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.