The townfolk gathered in Lake Bluff’s Artesian Park for a bit of down-home fun at Lake Bluff’s Union Church three-day “Taste” Food & Music Festival last weekend.
Diets were forgotten as families munched fried-chicken, pizza, tacos and ribs under the big yellow-striped food tent. Youngsters cuddled and combed farm animals. A juggler-stilt walker twisted balloons into cute bears and poodles. And foot-tapping rhythms from jazz and country to rock, folk and blues floated on late afternoon and early summer evening breezes.
“It’s a great community,” said Colleen Frazier, a recent Barrington transplant, while keeping an eye on son Michael, 4, as he tried to stroke every goat and chicken in the petting pen. “This is the first thing I’ve attended. It’s nice.”
Paul and Kathy Blahunka of Lake Bluff watched as daughter Natalie, 2, tried brushing Clifford the Hedgehog.
“We had a good time last year, and we thought Natalie would enjoy it even more now that she’s a year older,” Paul said.
Offering the community something to do was a major factor in holding the event, according to festival co-coordinator Craig Moreland of Lake Bluff. “Nothing goes on in this community in the summertime. That’s one of the reasons we’re doing it,” he said.
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Another reason was to raise money through food sales for homeless shelters, a battered woman’s shelter in Waukegan and the Lake Bluff Family Fund, for area residents who have fallen on hard times.
“Except last year we lost $1,700 doing the event. We hope this year to make some so we have something to contribute,” he said.
After the festival, co-coordinator Billy Grubbs was still unsure how much was made, but he thought the church did better than break even this year and would do even better next year because word was growing about the annual event. “We had about 15,000 (people),” he said. “It’s not quite what we had hoped for, but next year is going to be great.”
Just bringing people together was sufficient justification for Rev. Tom Dickelman. “It’s a gift we can give to the community,” he said.