This was a pretty cool race. I have to give them credit -it was super well-organized. We got there…read moreabout an hour early to park in the lot with a shuttle bus that takes you to the start. My parents came to watch and I didn't want them to have to walk very far and this was an excellent service. The other lot option required you to have to walk about a mile, which is too far from them. The only bummer -and this is probably for safety reasons -was that I thought the planes were going to be taking off and landing closer to us. You know how you drive on I-90 or Mannheim Road and the planes are literally 10 feet over your head? Yeah -call me foolish, but I thought that was going to happen as we ran. I just assumed that if they got that close to the major streets, they would just be taking off and landing close to the route. So, you will not be experiencing that -but as far as a unique experience -this was still a cool race. There is a big plane that you can pose next to for pictures and just overall an interesting event because you are accessing areas of the airport property that most people will never see. You are literally running on a runway they close for the event. The shirt was cotton -would like to see a "tech-T" in future years, as they tend to hold up better after multiple washings. After all, it is going to be a fun shirt to wear and a great conversation starter regarding our experience!

Edison Park Fest is a fantastic weekend neighborhood festival located in, well, Edison Park. If…read moreyou're not familiar with Edison Park, it's a neighborhood of Chicago north of Harlem Ave, on Northwest Highway, just south of Park Ridge. Edison Park fest spans several blocks and runs parallel to the Union Pacific Northwest Metra line. The festival totes two music stages, plenty of port o potties, several good vendors, a kids section, traveling carnival games,and several business vendor tents. There's pretty much something for everybody. Edison Park fest was well organized and spaced-out. I really had a good time walking around, sipping a beer, and perusing the many business tents. Metal barricades stops any temptation to trample on any residential front lawns running along this neighborhood festival, so make sure you get in on either Oliphant Ave or Ozark Ave. I had a really good time. So if you are in the north side and looking for a street festival without the crazy amount of crowds, definitely check out Edison Park fest.

Edison Park fest is a decent street festival located on the far North side of the city. The fest…read moreruns in mid August and always draws a healthy crowd. Edison Park is home to many police / first responders so you know it is going to be safe here. The crowd from here can get a little sketchy, but it is always a good time. The fest is between the Metra stop and Moretti's and spans a few city blocks. The food here is standard carnival fare. Nothing too great that I saw, but I enjoyed the fresh squeezed lemonade. They have vendors that serve up everything - most unhealthy, but delicious. Prices aren't too bad and the lines were pretty short when I went on a Saturday. There is a giant area of kids bouncy castles. These are pay as you go and is managed by an outside company. Some rides are good and take a few minutes, others are over in 30 seconds. They all cost $2-$3 each, so choose wisely if you don't splurge on the $30 day pass. There are several live music acts performing all weekend. It isn't my cup of tea, but people seem to like the 80s/90s rock cover bands. Rock on!

Still a great go-to event in the suburbs of Chicago. Definitely not as crowded as the Taste of…read moreChicago, with enough food vendors to try out and spend an hour or so on. Venue is setup with lots of space and shaded seating area near the Park Ridge Metra station. There is a large stage area with entertainment on the east-side of the venue. This place sells food by the ticket, so the layer of abstraction helps with not knowing you're paying $12 worth of tickets for two chicken skewers and rice. Most food items worth trying out are around 8 to 12 tickets, with prices, as of 2023, being $10 for a strip of 8 tickets. No surcharge for cash, but if you only have plastic, they do apply a surcharge. In either case, still better than $30 for a piece of lettuce at the Taste of Chicago, wading through a large crowd, while hoping to not have your food bumped out of your hand from an unaware crowd. BATHROOM REVIEW: Plenty of port-a-potties, with mine being pleasant and clean. Not a lot of use so far when I went around 2PM on a Saturday afternoon. We'll see, as the festival goes on with drunks destroying the bathroom. But for now, sit or squat? Squat... it's still a port-a-potty.

The food was great and I enjoyed the atmosphere as it was very safe and relaxing. I will be back…read morenext year.

The Park Ridge Park District puts on an excellent October Fest the last Saturday of every…read moreSeptember. It is located in Hodges Park which is right in front of City Hall. The fest is free to enter, but there are charges for food, beer and kids activities. A wrist band for all the bouncy castles and kids games is only $5. There is plenty of parking in the neighborhood behind the event or you can try by the library. There is live music at night and plenty of activities during the day. There are a ton great food vendors including Holts, Harp and Fiddle and a few other places that serve German fare. The giant pretzels with dipping sauce were a hit and the beer list was extensive. Prices were pretty reasonable for a festival and the lines to get food/drinks were not bad at all. You could use credit cards for beer, but everything else was cash only. This is a great way to celebrate the beginning of fall and hang out in the park.

This festival has grown immensely! Every year it just seems to be more organized…read more The parking situation has always been . This year, however, (2024) it was really organized. Food was great! However, if you come Saturday night- forget about eating- The lines are long. ( that's because the food is on amazing). My suggestion is to come mid afternoon 3-5pm either Saturday or Sunday and your wait won't be long- heck, there might not be a line at all. Roasted lamb and pig were AMAZING. Fresh and right off the spit. That was my meal on Saturday afternoon. Their sausages, chevaps, are also great. The Serbian hamburger is OUT OF THIS WORLD AND AMAZING. This was my Sunday lunch and dinner. Saturday night has an assortment of music genres folk music, rock music, they had a string/banjo band and I saw a number of kids listening to a young dj outside on my way out. Every music group had their own room. They also have folk dancers that were great! The costumes were beautiful. This is truly a family festival. They also had a small children's section. They should consider expanding that. Prices were similar to other festival prices. They asked for a donation of $5 when we walked into the festival. Overall a 5 star rating They still need to implement a better system for the LONG food lines during prime time. My family and I will be there next year!

Unfortunately, Serb Fest is not what it was 5 years ago. It's bigger, but it's not better…read more Lamb has increased to $16 for a pound, should you be able to get any. We arrived around 7:30pm and got our tickets and stood in line. 8pm. 8:30pm. Around 9pm we make it to the front of the line and it stops completely. They announce that they may be able to give everyone currently in line 1 portion of Lamb or Pig, but it's going to take another 30 minutes or so to cook. People are getting drunk and impatient and it's becoming unpleasant. At 9:05pm we give up, take our tickets, and buy $20 worth of $5 Lav beers that don't even fill the plastic cups. I'm not sure what happened and how they ran out of one of the main attractions of the festival with 3 more hours to go. It was disappointing and, in my opinion, a waste of our time. Someone toward the entrance was discussing this situation with another man and it sounded like there was an ordering error that hadn't been fixed in time. I dunno. Your best bet might be to come during the day, closer to 2-4pm or so, before it gets crowded and well before they might be running out of roasted goodness.

a great haunted house with lots of dedicated scarers! Plenty of parking in the lot, and for us the…read morewait time was under 10 minutes in line. they has good lighting and decorations inside! would love to go back next year

I'm not sure how I'd never heard of Scream Scene until this year! 2022 was the 15th year for this…read morehaunted house at the former Skokie water park, and from the design to the actors, it was professional quality. From mazes to electronic features, and engaging cast and gore, it was both fun and creepy from beginning to end. I definitely screamed a few times, and after I exited, I watched as other "survivors" came racing out to escape the final element of fear. I've been to several haunted houses, although not for several years, and this one stands out as one of the best I've been to in the area. While this is a park district production, it's definitely not for small children, but great for probably teenagers and up. For the general public, admission is $13, or $20 for a fast pass. I was told it takes about 15 minutes to go through it, though I didn't time our visit to confirm that. By the time we left around 7:30, the line had grown pretty long, and it was only the second day it was open for the season. I'd recommend a visit to Scream Scene to get you in the Halloween spirit!

This was a great celebration! Pride in Park Ridge is a single-evening event, and it lasted three…read morehours. It took place in and around Hodges Park right in front of city hall. There were a bunch of community groups, including schools, LGBTQIA+-focused orgs, local businesses, and so on. There were also about a half dozen food trucks featuring Latin American cuisine, Filipino foods, hot dogs, barbecue.... The main event was the drag show that took place. And it wasn't a short show; it lasted 45-60 minutes. I've never been to a drag show but it was so much fun! There were 3-4 queens performing various songs and they were fantastic. They didn't have a standard stage; they were performing street side, so they had a lot of ground and crowd to cover and it was tiring watching them, haha. They also had a few costume changes (or at least one of them did) which was pretty impressive. In addition to that entertainment there were some kid-friendly activities like a bounce house (or two?), and some arts and crafts tables as well with some children's activities. They had t-shirts for sale as well, with an art deco design this year that was pretty cool so I had to pick one up. I'm looking forward to next year; I just hope they have toddler-sized shirts too!

I'm not totally sure what I think about this event. It's definitely popular. There's the BBQ…read morecompetition, and I'm sure it's standard that the people participating in the competition don't actually make any food for attendees to eat. But at least there were a couple of food trucks out there serving up the goods. We were there 2-3 hours before the event ended (and it had been going on for 6-7 hours at that point) so there may have been other booths around or there earlier in the day. There was a band playing on the steps of city hall and folks were having a lot of fun getting their groove on. There were some kids activities set up on the perimeter, like a bounce house and stuff. I think next year we'll go a little earlier. Parking was a bear, since there's only street parking around Hodges Park and the lot by the library. But it might be interesting to see how a BBQ competition goes.

The smell of BBQ is in the air in Park Ridge. The 1st Vine Street BBQ Fest in town and has…read moreprofessional and amateur cooks facing off for a good old cook off! You cannot taste the food from the competitors, but there are a handful of vendors to buy BBQ and drinks from. Earls has decent pulled pork and I liked the chicken sandwich from Urban Que. They had a mobile wood oven pizza company that made a pretty good Neapolitan pizza too. Honestly the food for sale wasn't too good, hopefully they draw better vendors next year. Kids can keep busy with about 6 large bounce castles. They also have face painting, crafts and other games for the whole family. Live music is rocking all day until 9pm! This is a great, family friendly event in Uptown Park Ridge.

This was my first visit to this nice summer festival. Without any kiddos in tow, which is not…read morereally in the job description anymore except in umm special situations, I was only interested in the free concerts. The atmosphere on a pleasant Saturday evening was crowded, festive, buoyant, well-behaved, and safe with a good visible presence by the Skokie police. This festival is really great for the area and has grown in its local renown. I actually lived in Skokie from 1982 - 1995 and this event didn't exist until 2007. We saw about half of Americana singer Micheal McDermott's performance followed by alt-rock band Vertical Horizon. For the price, t'was very enjoyable. I never heard of either and it was no biggie, but I saw that the Bash drew Foghat here at least one year, so they occasionally get some big names. I also learned I didn't need to lug around portable chairs to watch the main stage. There's fold-up chairs already set up and available and it's easy to nab a couple of seats if you're there before a performance starts. Midway through one though, it's harder at prime time, but with people coming and going, the wife and I still managed to nab a couple seats pretty close to the front. Parking can be a little challenging as it's virtually all neighborhood street parking. You just have to circle around looking for an opening and be willing to walk a little. Great festival, and a great first visit for us! Thank you Skokie!

I like the fact that I could just walk to this event from my home, no car necessary, not at all…read more Downtown Skokie is experiencing a resurgence and the Backlot Bash is part of that good feeling about living close to Oakton and Niles Center Rd. And it's a three day event (Friday - Sunday) and there's a little something for everyone - kiddie rides, funnel cake, a beer garden, car show, good food (relatively speaking), live bands and you can go during the day and at night. I really have enjoyed the bands, here's a list of who I've seen - The Wailers (without Peter, Bunny and Bob), the Fixx (One thing leads to another), Blue Oyster Cult (more cowbell please), Flock of Seagulls (actually missed them as I was in Ireland) and most recently Foghat (I just wanna make, love to you - whoops, this is a PG rated review). So that's a pretty awesome list for a free neighborhood concert. I do worry though because this event is getting bigger and bigger and bigger each year. I think they need to go West on Oakton for more space. I haven't asked the home owners though, for their opinion. I do have to say that I enjoy the folks who bring their little kids or their aging parents to watch a rock concert, that just warms my heart. Like I said, there's a little something for everyone. It's also really safe, there's always the Skokie 5-0 swat truck parked right in front. Now I just hope next years band will be even better - how about Rush, REO or Cheap Trick, The Romantics, wouldn't that be great?!?