Waited in line for food for 30 minutes only to be told, they only except cash or Venmo what are we…read moredrug dealers? Left it don't need it not coming back again

This was really a lot of fun. We got to hear two bands - the first "Wedding Band", was a pretty…read moregood cover band. They all wore t-shirt tuxedos (a little tacky), but their music was good. At 10 pm the headliner came out - they were called the "Cherry Poppin' Daddies" out of Oregon somewhere. The name put us off a little (no- a lot). Their music was what I would call "suggestive" but their style could be classified as swing. This was not what a Saturday night crowd of several thousands wanted to hear. Not sure why Palatine chose them and not a rock band. Needless to say, a lot of people left during their performance. Now, the festival itself was great - Palatine festivals always get a great turn out. There were the regular information booths from insurers, politicians and window replacement companies. The food tents represented the best of Palatine - I had Pad Thai from Siri Thai and a hamburger from Heybeck's. Both were outstanding. Finally, the beer garden was packed. We set up chairs by the stage, but trans-versed the crowds to get beer several times. All I can say is there was no way to get to the beer tent easily. Oh, it was a straight shot. But there were so many people and the music was so loud, in many cases you had to push your way through. The craziest thing was the way they cordoned off the beer garden. The main entry was about a 30 foot long metal plank on the south of the area. There was one other entry point to the east. The porta- potties were set up to the northwest of the beer garden which I think makes sense. But, there was no entry between the two. In order to go from one section to the other, you had to leave the beer garden from either the south or the east, then walk all of the way around until you got there. It was not convenient. But, overall, it was a really good street fest which I will definitely go to again next years. My hope is that the people who put it together take these two points into consideration. If they corrected these, it would be a 5 star experience.

My husband and I love Septemberfest! It's one of the most well-run festivals in the area. The best…read morepart is that parking is free and super simple. You park at one of the high schools, and the shuttle will transport you to the festival. Shuttles run so frequently that every time I've gone I've never had to wait for one. The festival also has free admission! The only thing you have to pay for is food, drinks, and games. The concerts are also free to listen to. We come here every year and it's definitely worth the trip. The food options change every year, and we haven't been disappointed yet. Everything is delicious and we get try different cuisines without committing to going to the restaurant.

Returned to Septemberfest 2025. Added more photos. Food tent had more vendors selling food. All the…read morefood was delicious. Ride area was expanded with more rides.

A great Fourth of July festival. Frontier Days is a must see. The most fun you will have in five…read moredays. 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!

One of the busier 4th of July Festivals in the area, Frontier Days also has some of the most…read moreoptions 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.

This was great and it was bad at the same time. I don't go to too many festivals so when saw this…read morewas going to be in downtown Palatine, just a few miles from our home, we opted to go. The disappointment was the number of trucks. There were about seven or eight. Four or five of them had food, one had drinks, two had desserts. I had food from two of them - I had a pulled pork sandwich at the Best Truckin' BBQ and the three tacos combo at Mario's Cart. The food was good, but the waits were very long. I went to the BBQ cart early and didn't get my sandwich for 40 minutes. And, when I went to Mario's Cart a couple of hours later, even though I walked right up to the window, there were about 30 people waiting for theirs to be served. There were too few trucks for the number of people who showed. I later learned there was another Food Truck Festival in Elgin at the same time. I suppose that is where the rest of the trucks were. The great part of the fest was the band. Really, it was a separate event at the Palatine Bandshell, but it took place as soon as they closed the trucks. The band was called "Morry Sochat & The Special 20's" - they played a mixture of Blues Rock and Blues. I have to say they were really great. The musical talent on the stage was really wonderful. We went with a large group of friends and even ran into some people we knew while we were there. The music was great fun. The festival should/could have been better.

I've been attending Palatine Brew Fest for the three years it's been running, and I must say it…read moredoes get better every year. I've attended with both large and small groups and everyone has enjoyed themselves. The first year, there was an issue with the tent order, so the tents weren't big enough to duck under in the freezing rain, but this year there was ample space. I do wish they would add more heat lamps and have more food options, though. There's always a promise of multiple food trucks, but there is typically only one with zero food options for me. Tickets are a smidge overpriced, but if you get on it fast enough, you can save $10 by purchasing 3+ months in advance. I highly recommend getting an Uber, not just for safety reasons, but also because the lot fills fast if you don't get there right at the start time.

This festival is basically a summer street fair and it's quite nice for that. Despite the name of…read morethe event, just don't come expecting a lot of chocolate themed offerings. It's an oft mentioned comment in the reviews and it's true. With the kiddos in tow though, it's a nice summer outing for activities like their reptile show, some face painting, some kids' arts and crafts, browsing for kids' knick-knacks, and a bit of street food. They also had a separate setup of carnival rides for pay. There were only a couple of chocolate related offerings I saw - a chocolate martini drink, and a couple of chocolate snacks and such. They also had some small music stage acts that we did not try to see. Admission is $5 for adults (plus a $2.14 online purchase fee) and it's free for age 12 and under. There was limited free parking in their smallish public lots but there was a $5 donation lot a couple blocks away that would be your best bet. The fair is set up with only a modest amount of walking. The carnival rides involve purchasing separate ride tickets out of an unmanned dispenser which worked just fine. Rides are about $3-4 pp. This fest makes for a fine and delightful summer outing in quaint Long Grove if you just set your bar down appropriately.

I'm a chocolate beast so when my friends talked about going to Chocolate Fest, I was fully onboard…read more I wish I could say it was the best thing ever, but it was just an alright experience for me. It's hard to find parking here later in the day, but if you get here first thing you can find free parking on the street or in the school's parking lot. Chocolate Fest consists of mostly booths from various local & nonlocal places (I would say mostly non local), some with chocolate offerings but a lot just had merchandise they were selling. It's a fun event and you can find some cool things to buy, but overall it's not chocolate centric which is a bit sad. I was hoping to see some really inventive food options tat incorporate chocolate but it all seemed quite standard and I honestly was not blown away by anything I experienced. For $5 you can buy a tasting card and try 6 tasting portions at various locations. See my picture for the options this year. My friends and I got chocolate macaroons from Sweet Whimsy Bakery, a chocolate flavored cigar (real one, not candy!) from Neumann's, a Chocolate Mint Tea Bad from Potpourri (it was very tasty tea!), Chocolate Baklava from Long Grove Cafe, Chocolate Mousse also from Sweet Whimsy Bakery and something else which is escaping me right now. Chocolate Fest was fun but I can't say it's something I would go to again.

I am local to the area, so I have been to various festivals over the years. I arrived around 2 pm…read moreon a Friday, and could not find parking downtown. The lots that I normally park at were blocked off and the main parking lot doesn't have much capacity. I ended up parking in the parking lot of Kildeer Countryside Elementary School. Long Grove Confectionary only makes the strawberry donuts for Strawberry Fest. The one improvement over the past was that the food at the food booths are now taking cash/credit card payment instead of tickets.

Definitely not enough strawberry items for a strawberry festival. Strawberry donuts were good…read more Mostly chocolate dipped strawberries & strawberry nonalcoholic drinks. No strawberry shortcake or strawberry pie. Even the winery didn't have strawberry wine. They sold sangria which was dry, dark red. The arts & crafts booths were mostly home remodeling booths trying to gather their business Very disappointing to drive 1.5 hours for barely any strawberry items

Fun summer event with lots of great Irish themed booths, music, activities, drinks, and food…read more Throughout the event, there's plenty of great dancing and bands that play starting from the afternoon that goes till the evening. Admission is very reasonable at only $5, with proceeds benefiting the Arlington Heights Historical Museum. There are some nice photo taking opportunities as well with several setups for leprechaun themed pictures. Nice place to spend an evening listening to some great music and celebrating Irish culture. Don't forget to try some of the special soda offered here as well.

From the owner: Irish Fest with beer, food and bands. $5 admission.read more

Another typical suburban festival -- carnival rides, mixed with music stages, and food tents, and…read moresometimes, business vendors. To be honest, I enjoy em, and this one, called Buffalo Grove Days, or what the cool kids call it -- "BG Days" is A-OK with me. I do like how this is well laid-out. There are shuttle buses to take/drop you to where you need to be. I didn't bother looking for parking and ended up parking at wherever the Buffalo Grove Days parking signs pointed to, which ended up being at the Buffalo Grove Metra station, which was free. I do have to say that the offering of carnival rides BG Days have, compared to the other copious amounts of suburban festivals, was less. It was actually hard to use up our 22-tickets (this year it was 22-tickets for $25) and I'm glad I didn't go with the unlimited rides for $25 each. The carnival games included pop-a-shot, lucky ducks, and other typical games. Food-wise, the food tent was actually pretty big. Lots to choose from, from pizza, to Mexican, to Dairy Queen. Food prices were A-OK and definitely not like the $40 for a piece of lettuce prices you'd find at the Taste of Chicago. BATHROOM REVIEW: The couple of port-a-potties we visited were actually pretty clean! Many to choose from and there was no line on the evening we went. Sit or squat? It's still a port-a-potty after all. Squat.

Free to enter. There are various shuttles (bona-fide school busses!) to bus you from parking lots…read moreto the fairgrounds and back. Tip: Make sure to note whether your bus says COOK CO or LAKE CO on the side window so you can get back on the right bus route. Bring chairs or blankets for the parade (starts at 1). The north side of Lake Cook has craft fairs and food, while the south has rides and games (and a few food options - mostly cotton candy, elephant ears, corndogs). Ride tickets amount to about $1.25, and kiddie rides are typically 2-3 tickets. There are two sections of rides: the kiddie ones and adult. Food vendors included a lot of pizza (Nancy's, Wapaghettis...), Jersey Mike's, JD's BBQ, Culvers..also mac and cheese, chicken tenders, burritos, pretzels, etc from various other vendors. There's a covered picnic area to chill and take a break from the sun and heat, as well as a misting tent. Prices weren't TERRIBLE. My steak burrito was $7 and my custard sundae was $3. Pop cans are $1.50 and water is about $2.50. You can bring your own beverages, water, coolers, whatever (non-alc), too. There's an abundance of portra johns, and we even saw some being cleaned! Clean sh!tters?! Score!

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.