A great Fourth of July festival. Frontier Days is a must see. The most fun you will have in five days. The activities during the day are geared toward families and great entertainment at night. The best part is that admission is free. Food and beer are available to purchase and at reasonable prices. The "Red Shirt" volunteers put in a great deal of care and effort and it shows. On Independence Day, I attended the parade and it is THE BEST parade that I have ever seen. The focus is on fun with a capital F. Before the band on the first night I saw them present scholarships. What a great way to give back to the community! Beyond the regular carnival activities are some very special and unique activities that make Frontier Days special. Among them are bingo, pony rides, pie eating contest, rib eating contest, cake decorating, dog frisbee, corn hole, water fights, soccer tournament, volleyball tournament, spikeball tournament, etc. The family fun stage is filled with lots of amazing entertainment such as the pet parade, magicians, reptile show, dancers, clowns, police demonstrations, and music acts. The best part of the festival for me is the Citizens with Disabilities day. This is a day where citizens with disabilities and their families can ride in the carnival without the big crowds and with accessibility considerations. This is followed by a great lunch and entertainment for the families. Frontier days is definitely a magical way to spend the Fourth of July weekend! read more

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One of the busier 4th of July Festivals in the area, Frontier Days also has some of the most options for things to do or see. Here are some thoughts on various aspects: Location: Located conveniently in Recreation Park, this is an easy walk from parking garages and street parking around Arlington Heights downtown. Layout: As others have noted, most food and events are located in half of the park while the other areas aren't utilized as much. Due to the layout of recreation park, this is probably unavoidable. But, there's typically not much of a traffic jam except in the rides area and when exiting a concert. Food: Reasonably priced for a festival. There's fortunately lots of different food, drink, alcohol, and dessert (ice cream) options here. Nothing too fancy (or healthy) -- but you'll find the standard options to feed your family like pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, italian beef, etc. Rides: Great selection for a festival. Not as huge as the biggest ones around Chicago, but for this area of the suburbs it's quite large. There's also discounts for bargain rides for only $20. Performers: There are evening concerts with a band on the main stage every evening. Free to attend and a great way to end the evening. Previous performers have included Plain White T's, American English, The Wallflowers, etc. Other activities: Include parade, arts & crafts, eating contests, miscellaneous performers, athletic activities, marketplace, animal petting, etc. Overall, great place to spend the 4th of July weekend with tons of fun activities and reasonable prices -- plus great music. read more

The most notable thing about this fair is its free-ness. That is, there's no entry cost! That said, it seems more geared toward kids, with lots of games and rides and...not a lot else. (I believe live music happens in the evenings as well.) I guess I don't understand where the name "Frontier Days" came from because there wasn't anything particularly frontierish going on (no fording rivers or dying of dysentery, thankfully). But maybe it's one of those things that changed over time. I will say that the rides (apparently provided by North American Midway Entertainment) seemed to be better quality than those we saw the other day at Lisle Eyes to the Skies (some of which looked decidedly worn). It was also great here that the company put up warning signs on rides that use strobe lights; photo-sensitive folks thank you! :) There were fewer food options than we expected, but happily there was a big covered tent to eat in. We parked remotely and took the South shuttle bus (seemingly one bus making the rounds on each route, since we had the same driver, and we waited at the shuttle stop for about 15 minutes when it was time to go back). So if you do the same you'll save the stress of trying to find a parking spot, but you'd better not be in a hurry to get back to your car. Overall, if you're into rides or have kids, this is a more cost-effective festival in the area. read more

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Frontier Days, aka "Arlington Heights Fest", is always situated around the week of July 4th (a few days prior, and at least 1-2 days after depending on how the holiday falls) and is usually pretty cool. The fest itself is on the larger side, and is FREE TO GET IN. Contrast that with paying $15 to get into Naperville Ribfest AFTER paying between $10-$20 to park (both of these fests are roughly about the same size and content, too). Parking for this fest can get a bit hectic, but you can ALMOST ALWAYS find some around adjacent side streets, or further down Miner St. by the elementary school. The further down you go, the more parking opens up. You might have to walk a few minutes - just wear comfortable shoes. We have always found parking and it has never been overly far from the fest. There is also a parking garage nearby that one time, we got lucky and found a parking spot in. It's best to just park on one of the side streets and walk to the fest though. Fest, as mentioned, is large. Tons of carnival rides, food vendors, etc. Usually very crowded, especially peak nights (Friday, Sat, and/or the night of the 4th and big bands). There is no extra charge to see the bands. This fest has always usually had some cool, bigger bands come thru. Over the years, I have seen BOC, Foghat, Kansas, Little River Band, Eddie Money, and several others. Brett Michaels played last year in 2013. The fest can get very crowded for the concerts especially depending on who is performing. Either arrive early and put down a blanket, or, find a comfortable place to stand having a side-view of the stage. Afterwards, depending on who the band is, you can stand around and some of the band members will come out and sign stuff or take pictures near the back-end of the stage set-up. Washroom facilities - there seem to be rows and plenty of these, however, I don't recommend them unless it is an absolute emergency if you get my drift, especially women. They are usually dirty, smelly, and dark - this is putting it professionally. Use the washroom before coming to the fest, or if you have to - leave the fest and find a place safer and more sanitary and then come back (it's free to get back in). Like any fest (especially cheaper or free ones), you WILL see a large chunk of idiot people - usually teens - walking around and loitering because they have nothing better to do. I myself was part of this crowd some years ago. Okay, sometimes they ride the rides, but you get my point. Fireworks are on the night of July 4th, usually around 9:30 pm-ish. I usually bring my own water bottle in my back pocket - I think they allow water bottles but various other things you may not be able to bring into the fest unless you hide them well. I do recommend Arlington Heights Fest. I've gone about 6 times the past 10-11 years or so. Check who is playing at the fest a few weeks before and come on out and check it out, if nothing more - walk around and see the bands from afar - it costs you nothing but gas money to get there. Would also recommend over going to Naperville Ribfest (unless you are a strict rib connoisseur), which is basically robbery without a gun. read more

Arlington Heights Frontier Days (AHFD) is a decent-sized festival in da 'burbs. It's one of those typical suburban festivals where they bring in a traveling carnival and also have food tents to go with it. With AHFD, they also have a few things for kids -- petting zoo, a place to ride some ponies, and face painting. The crowd wasn't too bad when we came here nor was it that rowdy -- none of them young whippersnappers! Anywho, good suburban festival to check out. read more

It's just not that great. While they do have some good bands come through, it's not a terrific gathering space and the other activities are pretty cheesy. Skip. read more

The Carnival was expansive. So if you like carnival games and rides, this fest is for you. Otherwise, it is a little boring. However it is free and there's even shuttle buses that are great for the locals. The food selection too was a good variety of venues from the area. The best really is the concerts. Great sound and a lot of fun. read more

Better than other local Fourth of July festivals because they have food from local venders and great concerts. The concerts are free, so make sure to get there early enough to get a good spot! The drinks are also reasonably priced at $5 for a beer, cider, or wine. read more

It's free so I shouldn't complain but.... They don't allow coolers of any kind and they check all bags so don't even think about sneaking anything in. Once in, make sure you check out the dismal selection of extra generic food served for forced eye-gouging donation prices by various local charities and organizations. It seems as though traditional vendors are excluded from doing business here so it's either the charity food or carnie food served from a trolley. Yech. On the plus side, we got to see Bret Michaels tear it up for about an hour. He's actually a pretty good showman and we had a good time despite all the Bret Michaels wannabes running about with their bandana/cowboy hat combos complete with eyeliner and blonde wigs. They've been doing this festival for many years now so free parking with bus transportation is ample but we found reasonably close street parking in the nearby residential areas. I'm sure the area residents just love dealing with the droves of people trampling their lawns. Decent time, except for the food. Next time, we'll eat somewhere before arriving. Oh, and drink prices are standard for festivals but you have to buy those annoying tickets. So stand in line for the wristband then stand in another line to buy tickets then stand in a HUGE line to get a lukewarm beer. At least you don't have to tip due to the tickets. read more

I wasn't very impressed with the carnival but it was a good time for the kids. They had your typical rides and cheep stuffed animals games. We found our favorites, funnel cakes and lemonade, so that made me happy. On the other side they had an art fair, face painting/tattoos for the kids, and pony rides for cost. The real reason we went was for the craft fair. There were plenty of artisans there along with Pampered Chef and booth that sold dip mixes. We ended up buying a couple of dips so the trip was well worth it. read more

By night on July 3rd the craft fair was nowhere to be found. The carnival rides were of a great selection but no one was on them. Why? I'm going to be gentle and say that the economy made prices a little bit on the high side. There were also carnival games including the snapping colorful fish heads to fish for a prize. What bothered me just on kind of an "I hate shitty carnival equipment" level was that half of their fish heads were either not working or half working, and for all of the money these companies suck up they can TOTALLY afford to fix little games like that. It's just plastic. No fireworks, I was really ticked off when we got all the way over there to find this out. We missed Blues Traveler which actually is pretty cool that they were there. The last 2 or 3 hours only had some crappy side bands still playing, all the drunkards were having a great time though. They were all around the music, no place really to sit, trash all over the place, fountain full of empty plastic beer cups... Kids/teens were blowing up the carnival. I felt like I had invaded an outdoor high school pep rally with no adult supervision. Kind of smelly, just an afterthought. Bathrooms were on a separate side of the field where the music and tables were, rather annoying if you happened to be sipping any alcohol and you needed to pee because they wouldn't allow any alcoholic beverages past the gate that separated the port o potty's and the rest of the festival space. They used tickets to distribute alcohol at the vendor tables. And now the happy ending, though they didn't have much in the way of food (I didn't even see a single hamburger stand, just fries, nachos, cotton candy, and other arbitrary cheap festival food that's overpriced including lemonade in plastic colored aliens...) we did stop for a $4 nacho plate which hit the spot. They had a LOT of hand sanitizer stations all over the place which was great, and big dispensers of paper towel like napkins which ripped off really easy when you needed them to but actually were very helpful in not falling apart. After the nachos we were like "well what now?" seeing as how we were incredibly disappointed about the fireworks, so what we did was spot a corn dog stand and an unhappy man that looked like the ShamWow guy's twin brother served us $3 corn dogs that were DELICIOUS and buttery and wonderfully bad for your health. And we both had 2 each they were that good. After that we were satisfied and returned to our car in the nearby parking garage that had free three hour parking on the first level. Satisfactory night I suppose! Thanks to the savior of the night, the corn dog. read more

Yeah, it's mostly your standard carnival stuff with the standard carnival food, rides and games, but kids enjoy it and in the evenings they have bands that are usually pretty good. No charge to get in. Free parking is available in the village garages, but it will involve a walk of a few blocks. My most significant gripe is somehow they don't seem to publicize it very well. I lived in that town for years and before I had even heard of it. They seem to ignore all us transients who live in the apartments on the south side of town. read more

Good music, Good food, Good people, Good Times. Parking can kinda suck if getting there for 8pm concert at 7:30. Give yourself a head-start, enjoy some carnival rides and delicious choice of the regular carnival food or some solid local fare. We had some amazing egg rolls from a local place and Sweet Baby Rays pulled pork and Porky's mozzarella sticks were perfect for the evening. We set a blanket down with some seats and hang with the baby while listening to some really decent music. Gin Blossoms and Kansas the last couple nights and both sounded good and was perfect for the occasion. All in all a very fun time. read more

Arlington Heights Frontier Days - Festivals Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

Fun time. Good place to bring the family. Usually good concerts and decent selection of games and food.

We have gone three times. This is the saddest citywide festival we have ever experienced. Even a tiny town of 200 in Kansas or Michigan has done a much better job of it in our experience. The music is good. The Midway is way too cramped and crowded with only decent rides. The food is limited. There are very, very few booths of interest. The park is large, but everything is crammed into one side of it. read more

Good O'l Frontier Days. Now mate, I live in Aussie but I come down here every fourth to visit some friends. It's a fourth of July Fair with some o'l fashion fair food, games, and rides. Smaller rides, not a whole theme park but quite a few fun ones specially for the kiddos. The food was old fashioned fair food, you know pickled snails and french fries. Burgers too! I'll be going again this year and I for one can not wait! Wiipeee! read more

The group of volunteers that coordinate this event each year is amazing! The festival must get better food to attract and keep crowds! Enjoy dinner elsewhere. read more

A fun time for the family, rides, food and music. Fun rides for kids and food and music for the adults.

Great music a fun time for the family. Me and my family go every year and enjoy the pony rides and the petting zoo then the day show.

Too many high school kids fighting and beefing with each other . This year I had two kids fighting ran into me spilled my food and beer everywhere and all over me, so I picked the st Viator rich little pick up and threw him in a dumpster. Last couple of years place has gotten out of control. Good music and beer, and pretty good food. but please keep the Viator, prospect, W/E high school kids out, all they want to do is fight each other, and if they do fight each other it's pretty pathetic. read more

The thing to see here are the musical acts (not the food or the rides). American English, which plays July 4th, is a fantastic Beatles cover band and is really in their element when doing this show. The official announcement of acts is after Memorial Day. It's available online at http://www.frontierdays.org/. I've gone to this festival every year since I heard about it in 1999. Bring a chair, get there early, and sit back and listen to the bands. read more

This was a great time and the cost is absolutely fantastic, FREE. We enjoyed bands all afternoon, with a band on the mainstage in the evening. Lawn seating and good visibilty from where ever you sat. The food tent was great with a wide selection we enjoyed several wonderful treats. We loved that fact that between the two stages was the beer tent. Plus behind the one stage about 50 feet away was a porto potty convention. They had to have 40 of them lined up. No waiting. Plus other ones at select loacations all over the grounds. There is no smoking on the park grounds but they do have a designated smoking area. They have terrific fun and entertainment all day long and you can watch or participate. All free. Care to do a pie eating contest? How about a rib eating contest? The carnival was a carnival. Kids were having a ball. Saw a lot of people carrying their prizes around. All in all this was a great time and I will be there next year too. Cant beat it. read more

frontier days made me so happy :-) we had an incredible time here! a lot of the bands were awesome...great park area and we always felt nice and safe here. relative to everything else out there, frontier days was very well worth, each and every time I visited:-) I'm so sad it's over for this year, but it was great while it lasted! read more