fun time. I'll plan my visit better next year since this time I was only walking though for one of…read morethe stores on the block that this was happening. I didn't have time to really stop and enjoy all the vendors although I did make time to grab some business cards and food. very nice.

Fun little (and I do mean little) festival in Andersonville showcasing some cool local shops and…read moreartists. Sadly there aren't that many vendors, and it was quick to check all of them out within 15 minutes. I did appreciate the food trucks and local beer flowing freely. They had some local bands playing too. We got a beautiful day and discovered some great talents that are throughout the city. I would recommend to check it out, make an afternoon of it. Just get more vendors to make us stay longer!

Good fest! Entry fee is $5 recommended but they let you in for $3 as well. We were not carrying…read moreenough cash and they let us (party of 2) for $3. Once inside, there were a few local vendors with rings, hats and clothes. If you like henna tattoos, they had a couple of those. Coming to the ribs, each participant had its own booth. They were long lines at almost each stall. You can also participate in rating the ribs if you would like. Once you are loaded with food and drinks, head over to the back and grab a seat to enjoy some nice local music. Take the dance floor if you like or just groove on the spot.

I really enjoyed the festival. That said, I am not a fan of ribs. I will eat them but they are not…read moresomething I seek out. My biggest gripe is there is no way to eat ribs without having sauce, seasoning or something on your fingers. And, BBQ sauce does not do it for me. But fortunately, this festival offers so much more. For a $5 cover charge, you are granted in and out privileges of the festival which features quite a few food vendors, clothing vendors and two music stages. Not a fan of BBQ, well there were non BBQ vendors there too. My favorite non BBQ vendors were the Acapulco style Piña Coladas and the wood fire corn. Also, an Australian BBQ vendor offered some of the best cornbread I ever had and Shrimp on a Barbie which was incredible. The shrimp was also very reasonably priced ($6 for 9 shrimp). ... I know you are wondering how can you eat all this stuff while standing. Well, there were table and chairs provided by Budweiser and standing only tables for the transient bunch solely looking for a quick spot to eat quickly. The BBQ vendors had their trophies displayed from various competitions and attendees were able to vote for this year's favorite. ****Most companies accepted credit cards and there was an ATM on site.....The only thing missing was towelettes.

Evanston holds a lot of events throughout the year and with so many of them happening in the…read moresummer, there are many options to choose from. I've gone to a number of them over the years and find Custer Fair to be a top summer destination in the city. During our walk down Main street, Chicago, Washington, and Custer Avenues (this fair covers 4 streets) a few notable things I saw were vendors selling air plants hung from glass containers, vintage Chicago posters, handcrafted jewelry, a caricature artist, cool hand crafted toys for kids and, if you wanted to relax from all the walking, there was a booth that charged for chair massage. The food stalls had a good mix which included typical carnival fair like funnel cakes and corndogs. They also had a Taqueria stall, local craft beer, Pina colada stand, Texas bbq, Gyros, and Soba noodles. With all the savory food and tempting refreshments abound, the real hero on a hot 90 degree day was the lemonade stand. Every refreshing cup of lemonade had a whole half lemon in it. I was able to double my servings of lemonade by squeezing the half lemon and adding water and sugar when I got home afterwards. Bonus! Consider yourself lucky if you've scored a parking spot around the neighborhood. You will need to arrive an hour prior to opening to find a space. Your best bet is to take public transport by taking the Purple line train and get off on the Main Street station. It takes you right there. Pro Tip: Most stalls are cash only establishments with a few taking credit/debit cards. If you forget to bring cash, there is a Chase bank less than a block and a half across from the Main street purple line stop south on Chicago Avenue.

I had the honor to work at one of the food vendors this year. In fact, it was my first time…read moreexploring the "Custer Fair" in Evanston. I was quite impressed by the number and the variety of merchants that participated. I guess the time has changed and we are becoming a cashless society. Many vendors were able to accept credit cards (with a surcharge fee). Nevertheless, the trusty green bucks still would still get you all-inclusive access! There was at least one (1) PNC bank ATM outside the CTA Main Purple Line station for visitors' convenience. The sound quality for the music lineups was decent. Fortunately, our area wasn't bombarded with an excessive volume while the concerts were in session. The tent we set up was near the center stage, and thankfully, we didn't have to "shout" to the customers to ask for their orders. As always, most ladies can have a difficult time getting used to the porta potties. Here's my recommendation: be patient and reserve some energy by going to the nearest grocery/Liquor stores, such as WholeFoods, Target, Trader Joe's, and Binny's to use their facilities. They are not located feet away from the festival, but within walkable distances.

I'm sorry to have to do this, but this festival was dismal. From the website:…read more "The North Side Summerfest (NSS) will give the dog days a righteous send-off, with a full lineup of the area's best bands, a wide selection of arts and crafts and a mouth-watering array of food and drinks from all corners of the city." No. Four food stands, about ten arts and crafts vendors, and no band during the 40 minutes that we were there. It was both the smallest and most sparsely attended street fair that I have ever seen in our great city. I had some friends visiting from out of town, and we weren't asking for much--just your basic Chicago street festival. I've always said derisively that these things are all the same, which is why I only do one or two per season, but how wrong I was! The "donation" was only five dollars, but we felt gypped. I will give some small props for the cool Chicago-flag cutting boards that I saw at one of the crafts vendors, and for the $2 Mexican popsicles.

Street fest season culminates with Retro on Roscoe but then continues for another six or seven…read moreweeks with a series of smaller fests. North Side Summerfest is one of them. In the past, North Side Summerfest was held on one block of Belle Plaine between Damen and Lincoln and was one of the weakest fests of the summer. I wasn't going to come back to it this year until I read the link on Metromix and saw that they'd moved it to Lincoln in the two blocks south of Irving. This fest works much better in the new location. It was big enough to handle two stages and a bunch of food booths unique to this fest (not the usual crap rotating at all other fests) yet small enough that you could walk around without bumping people and spilling beer, making this fest rather relaxed and comfortable. Of course, they had the usual bands that make the rounds at every other fest. It's always the same bands, same beer, same portable outhouses and same people at these things. Speaking of seeing the same people at these things, there was the expected ex sighting at this fest. In the continuing tradition of big city, small world, I ran into a few other ladies from her crew who were not at the fest at another bar four miles away and mentioned that I'd seen the ex with her boyfriend. "Fiance," one of them said to correct me. So there. I've successfully facilitated yet another marriage. These royalty checks just keep coming. Four stars for North Side Summerfest.

This was me and The Heiress Apparent (La J) first time at this event. We are both lovers of Mac…read moreand Cheese, so of course when we heard about this event, we were in. Tickets were $65 for General Admission and and $105 for VIP. Both tickets got you all you can eat samples and five drink tickets. We got the VIP tickets because there was priority check in, free tee shirts and a VIP section we could sit in so we could be comfortable eating our mac and cheese. The VIP section was good, plenty of seats. This was our first time at the fest, so we have no comparison in terms of organization. But I would say that the event was very well organized. There were a good number of vendors representing different types of mac and cheese, very creative. The samples were a good size for getting a flavor of eat one. It was a brilliant idea to have the samples already out on the table ready to pick up. The only vendor that had a line was Public House (Chef Jeremy Tannehill) for the Chicken, Mac, & Waffles. It eventually settled down and we go to sample it...waffle cone, mac/cheese and a chicken meatball in hot sauce. It was good. Millie's Supper Club had a a great Smoked Gouda Mac & Cheese. Texican (Chef Kim Dalton) Texas Chili Mac, Warren's Ale House (Chef Kevin Hay) Ghost Pepper Mac with Smoked BBQ Brisket (wasn't that hot and that was good), and ConeCepts (Chef Turn Cummings) Beer Braised Brisket Mac & Cheese were all good. Another favorite for me was Carmine's. They came up with a Mac and Cheese slider and it was so good. Other favorites were Carnivale's (Chef Rodolfo Cuadios) Mac & Cheese Cake Pops. I could not wrap my mind around a mac and cheese dessert, but it was like eating cheese cake. That was my personal favorite of all the vendors. La J enjoyed Mahoney's Pub & Grille's (Chef Alex Gomez) Strawberry Mac & Cheesecake and Kitty O'Sheas at the Hilton Chicago's (Chef Mario Garcia & Chef Erica McGhee) something like an apple crumble. Again, not thinking of mac and cheese as a dessert, but both worked. The five drink tickets were good and I ended up getting more from some nice people. Not sure what all was there for adult beverages as I hit the table serving wine. Pretty decent whites and they have a sparkling, so I was in heaven. The pours were very generous. We didn't get to hit all of the restaurants as we got so full! We had a plan of attack for hitting all of the vendors, but made the mistake of repeating samples that we liked. All and all, it was a good time and I look forward to doing this next year.

Tubular elbow pasta has been one of America's favorite comfort foods ever since Yankee Doodle stuck…read morea feather in his cap. This annual one-day indoor festival provides a venue for talented local chefs to flex their creative muscles and compete for the Golden Noodle Award, and for foodies to sample something potentially more awesome than the familiar Kraft product. Tickets are pricey but the event donates a portion of the proceeds to a worthy charity. This was the first time the Missus and I attended the Fest (we were invited as VIP lunch guests). Many of the offerings we tasted were truly a quantum leap above the comparatively bland grocery aisle version. Some had unusual twists. For example, mac & cheese cake pops (Carnivale), whose flavor is best described as cheddar cheesecake. My personal fave was the sweet-and-savory concoction of Kitty O'Shea's (a past award recipient); it was redolent of caramelized onions. Several of the booths were elaborately decorated. To wash down the high-carb repast, participants could choose from an array of 5 oz. pours of beers, wines, and hard ciders. A deejay spun contemporary songs. The feeding frenzy concluded with the announcement of the winner and runners-up (by popular vote) for the Golden Noodle Award, a trophy that looks like a drainpipe on a pedestal. What a hoot! We're longtime fans of food festivals, and this exceptionally well-run event was among the best we've attended.

This is a great neighborhood fest. Plenty of vendors selling everything from lanterns to hot sauce…read more The star of the fest are the hot dogs. All of the dog were good. I just wish they would add more hot dogs vendors. There are a lot of non hot dog food vendors, they should have at least one hot dog offering. The musical acts were amazing especially Kashmir, a Led Zeppelin tribute band. It's a good time.

It's a nice event with lots of vendors, perfect for a nice day out. Suggested donation of $10, but…read morenot required. While it's something fun to do, $35 for two hot dogs is just too much.

This series of outdoor concerts celebrating Space's tenth anniversary is amazing. Held in the lot…read morenear Temperance Brewing, the beer is plentiful. The stage is reminiscent of street festivals, and it is an absolutely great experience. Just like visiting Space in Evanston for a show, the sound here is impeccable. Food trucks and port-a-potties are available and there are other vendors. There's even a booth to register to vote or update your voter registration. If you're feeling brave, climb into one of the bathtubs for a perfect new Yelp (or tinder) profile pic. Parking is free about a block west.

I love Space events, and this outdoor was no exception. Always great to enjoy a show where the…read moreperson on the sound board actually knows what they are doing. The Out of Space events have a great vibe. My only complaint is that there should be more of them!! Nicely done, folks at Space.

We took 3 buses (!) and a helpful bus driver directed us to Western and Longwood. We walked up the…read moreLONG hill and found a spot in the sun. It was populated but not super crowded. We wanted to find a spot near a bar. (thankfully the Nationalist posters were either gone or yet to appear). The neighborhood is a good mix of businesses and residences, and some smart cookies brought lawn chairs. Except for one drunk guy hanging out the window yelling (silly stuff) everyone was festive, patient, and the kids got candy. The devotion to schools, unions and veterans was touching, so that when the occasional political figure emerged (Hi Lori!) or a corporation made a float, we didn't mind too much. I will post pictures later.

I experienced my first (still debating if its going to be my only) south side irish parade two…read moreyears ago. The only thing I really remembered about the parade itself was the little men wearing the little hats driving the little carpet cars. Bizarre, but memorable none the less! As for the rest of the "party" it was craziness. First there was taking the METRA down to the south side. Everyone on the train was drunk. There was no organization. I had no idea how to get a ticket or if I even needed one. Turns out I didnt need one, everyone rode free that day. At the train stop, I had a bit of ways to walk to get to the parade route. While watching the parade, everyone around me was having a good time. Then again they were all drunk. And they were smoking. Did I happen to mention I cant drink and hate smokers? Yah......totally not my scene but I wanted to check out what all the hype was about. I did have a good time with the company I was with. Everyone was nice and my bf had the hook up with a family friend who owns a shop on the route, so we had access to a bathroom and didnt have to resort to pissing in alleyways. THANK GOD. I heard last year CPD didnt allow drinking on the streets. Maybe that helps in taming the chaos?