Allways very well run and organized. Thery ahve a great carnival and large food offering. There is…read morea ton of different other activaties from bingo to hockey skills. One of the resons its so good is the quality of the volunteers, they are the heartbeat of the festival. We have been a vendor at the marketplace for the last few years and its the best one of any of the city festivals. Its worth the trip to check out, there is something for everyone.

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!

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.

Living right down the street from the fest, every single year my family would walk down every…read moresingle day to enjoy it! The best part is my birthday is August 31st, so I would always get to go to a carnival on my birthday, wicked sweet! (When I was younger my family convinced me that the parade going past my house was my birthday parade hahaha) Anyway, this year is the year I have been waiting for: I turn 21 and I get to celebrate responsibly at the fest. No need to worry about driving home, because I can just walk! With all the delicious food at the taste of schaumburg, and the fantastic selection of alcoholic beverages, I know I will be pleased. I really enjoy how organizations and business' in the community can have booths here, it is a great way to meet people in the community and try something new. I also like how organizations can serve food from specific vendors for a day, to save some of the profit for their organization. I have fond memories of being in the Indian princess program with the YMCA and participating in that aspect of the fest. Another fun thing is the parade! It has ran past my house since I was very little, so I have been both a spectator and part of it. I think its a great way for the community to come together. Septemberfest is just a really great time for families. It makes me love my town so much more.

Have come to September fest a few times over the years. Not bad particularly for a free fair. Lots…read moreof vendors who sell every possible crafty thing out there. Lots of food, games, etc. Parking is at either one of the high schools and you get shuttled or there is parking at one of the local churches. Would recommend for good family wholesome fun!

This festival ran for 4 days until Mon, Sep 7. Parking wasn't so bad... parking in the neighborhood…read moreand took 20 mins to walk to the stage. I listened to the LP Vinyl band and they were pretty good playing rock music. There is no admission charges. Food trucks were around a few appeared popular, and the lines were not long. It's a super nice neighborhood surrounded by Mike Rylko community park with lots of police presence. Note that the pool toilets are closed so you have to use the porta potty but at least there are the touchless water and there is soap. Worth attending if you live close by.

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.

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

Great community event every year. Entertainment, carnival,…read moregames and food make this a fun event for all ages. School Of Rock Glenbrook Show Team rocked it on stage.

We went on a Saturday afternoon too see our granddaughter perform with the Glenbrook School of…read moreRock. It was not too crowded but parking was still a challenge. Mainly street parking so prepare to walk! There was no admission to attend. This is your typical community festival offering local foods and entertainment in addition to the typical carnival foods and rides. Prices are higher than other local festivals but it's a great way to bring the community together for 5 days!

I know there are a few people who would disagree, but I miss Des Plaines old summer party, where it…read morewas a "taste of" and actually had tents serving DP restaurant's food! Tents, not 4 tents, but a slew of them. The Des Plaines Summer Fling, while better entertainment than we had in years past (if you're into David Cassidy), didn't hold a candle to years past! 1. $3 cover! WTH? Lucky they had a singer (David Cassidy) who drew a bunch of people (odd though, I really wasn't a big Partridge Family fan, but had a ton of friends who went just for him). 2. 4 food booths, and I do not believe any of them were DP restaurants. 3. Carnival rides, complete with carnies and a full-fledged rip-off! 20 tickets for $20, rides were 3 - 5 tickets... I've got three kids who wanted to ride stuff, if I let them ride that stuff, there, I may as well have taken them to Six Flags for the day... it was a ridiculous waste of money. 4. ONE beverage tent, right by the stage (since that was the draw, I guess if you're only going to have one, that's where you'd put it) 5. Arts and crafts... BULL @#$%! There were 4 tents with artsie-craftsie stuff, two of them (the ones on the ends, because they were all in a row) had the same stuff! See below for a brief description of what this used to be if you want, but if it's run by the same organization next year, we won't waste our time! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Years past, when a company wasn't contracted to do this, but it was done by the city: 1) our restauranteurs came out and represented with good food and great personality; 2) free bouncy houses for the kids to play on, along with arts and crafts station; 3) historical center sold fresh baked pies from the porch for $3 a slice and it was GOOD!; 4) free to get in because you spent a ton-o-cash while you were there; 5) arts and crafts: portraits, hand made jewelry; knick-knacky stuff; you name it - it was there and it was worth seeing; and 6) local bands with local flavor and local followings were showcased.

The best part about this fest was the band JAKTRIPPER. They should headline this event next year!!!read more

Sadly, as others have shared, there weren't a lot of strawberry items here as there have been at…read morepast festivals. However, I can always count on Enzo & Lucia's for a cool, themed cocktail, like a frozen strawberry daiquiri, in this case. Other "on theme" items we saw were chocolate dipped strawberries (dark chocolate is my favorite), strawberry donuts, strawberry Nutrl, Smithwick's strawberry brew, and chocolate strawberry kabobs. One Greek food vendor had a strawberry frozen yogurt with baklava that was very refreshing in the heat. A beer mimosa at Buffalo Creek Brewing hit the spot too, and it's great to be able to cool off inside, even with our pup. We are always thankful for the parking at Long Grove Community Church for a $5 donation - totally worth it. And the people working the parking lot are so friendly. Thank you to the Village of Long Grove and an army of volunteers, first responders, and people it takes to make these festivals available.

$5 to park with The Lions, $7 to park in the lot by Buffalo Creek Brewing, used to be free (first…read morecome first serve). $7 to enter the festival, used to be a suggested donation, now it's required. So you are already out the 12 to 14 bucks plus gas and you have not even done anything yet. Interestingly enough, Buffalo Creek Brewing was pretty chill just outside the festival and did not have a booth at the festival either; but was a welcome respite from the crowds. FYI - Buffalo beers in plastic cups are allowed to take with you when a festival is going on. If you are coming for music, scope the schedule out ahead of time because they tend to do theme nights, this year Friday was modern, Saturday was classic rock, and Sunday was country. There were a few niche "strawberry" type featured items from some vendors, but for the most part, this was more of a straight up street fest. You are allowed to bring lawn chairs for the live music and many do. Several food types available, BBQ, Brats, Grilled Cheese, Quesadillas, Nachos, Chinese, burgers, hot dogs, etc. Vendor beverages featured beer, seltzers, NA, and sangria. Years past, I think you had to buy tickets to get food and drink and this year they seem to be shying away from that practice (thank gawd). We usually linger longer, but this year I think we left a little earlier than we expected.

After experiencing the difficulty of getting near the launch site of the fireworks shows, this year…read moreI decided to watch Itasca's firework show from a distance in Elk Grove Village. Though there was still quite a line off 53 and onto Biesterfield and Arlington Heights Roads, this is still much better than what I've experienced closer where the fireworks are launched. It's a good idea to allow a minimum of 30 min before and 30 min after for heavy congestion though even an hour after the show, the traffic was still quite heavy on the main roads. The show itself really dazzled with both a higher frequency of fireworks than many nearby spots as was a larger size fireworks. This spanned a large array of different firework types though I wish there was a little more variety in the colors available. Regardless, even from over a mile away, the show was amazing and well worth the drive nearby. It's still crowded in the surrounding towns and there were a substantial number of lines at local businesses like McDonalds who were serving food. Overall, great fireworks show to watch -- even if you're not experiencing it directly at Hamilton Lakes.

Great shot with lots of beautiful and very patriotic colors and styles of designs above our heads…read moregoing off, but was a little too short.

Beware it's cash only but there are plenty of ATMs to charge you service fees. You need six tickets…read morefor a beer, if you aren't a heavy drinker you will be left with extra tickets. Can you return unused tickets for cash back?

A great upscale arts festival (with wine!), that is set up near a quaint little historic downtown…read morearea. Open 8/24/13 and 8/25/13. Get your wine and then walk around the art booths! If you visit, you can get the best of the permanent downtown shops as well. The downtown stores and restaurants were bustling from the art festival crowds. Parking wasn't an issue, but you may have to park on the main street (just past downtown) and walk a block or two. This is a juried art festival, which means that a jury must review an artist's qualifications and portfolio before the artist can participate as a seller. This allows for much higher quality art and crafts than at a non-juried festival. The show was heavy on jewelry, photographs and paintings, but did have a good variety of other mediums (textiles, ceramics, leather). There were no handcrafted soaps or foods (but maybe those don't fit with "fine art"). I wished there were some paper crafts, like handmade cards, but I saw none. I purchased earrings and a necklace from two different vendors. I love them! There weren't too many people, and the booths were spaced well, so you could see everything. Food vendors and musicians were there, which made for a more enjoyable experience. 4.5 stars Visited 8/24/13