Organizers of Norridge’s Island in the City festival are urging fest-goers to “keep on truckin'” — as in checking out the offerings from food trucks.
The big change-up for the revival of the festival July 7 to 10, after a two-year COVID-induced hiatus, will be the appearance of food trucks instead of food tents, according to Karyn Nicholas, the Norridge Park District’s superintendent of recreation.
The festival at 4631 N. Overhill Ave., Norridge, will run from 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday, July 7; 5 to 11 p.m. Friday, July 8; 1 to 11 p.m. Saturday, July 9, and 1 to 10 p.m. Sunday, July 10.
“We’ll be at full steam this year,” said Annemarie Flaherty, park district executive director. The Park District staged a small Fall Festival early last October to make up for Island in the City missing both 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.
With the summer event in its 15th season, Flaherty and Nicholas are betting the popularity of food trucks elsewhere will translate into satisfying appetites and sweet tooths of patrons.
Nicholas said trucks will include pizza from popular Kiss By Fire, hamburgers and fries from Culinary Gangster and funnel cakes from My Funnel Truck.
The festival also will feature a beer garden.
Entertainment also is a centerpiece. The Blooz Brothers, channeling John Belushi’s and Dan Ackroyd’s classic black-clad characters, will highlight the main stage at 7:30 p.m. July 10.
A new act that Nicholas has been after for awhile is the Polkaholics, bound to get polka lovers in a dancing mood at 4:30 p.m. July 9.
Other acts are Serendipity at 6 p.m. and 7th Heaven at 7:30 p.m. July 7, Dick Diamond & The Dusters at 6:30 p.m. and The Hair Band Night at 8:30 p.m. July 8, Sealed With a Kiss at 6:30 p.m. and the popular ARRA, back for their fourth festival with classic rock, at 8:30 p.m. July 9, and Todd and The Ten Pins at 3 p.m. and Generations at 5:30 p.m. July 10.
The traditional carnival, with bargain rides, also will be on hand for Island in The City.
Flaherty said a four-day festival is more marketable to patrons and more financially feasible to the Park District.
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“People are able to attend when they can, pop in and out on their day of choice,” she said. “We are able to recover our costs over four days.”
Among sponsors are Harlem-Irving Plaza and Norridge Commons.
Festival patrons have informed the Park District they have missed the event two summers in a row.
“They tell us time and time again how important the festival is to them,” Flaherty said.
For more information, call (708) 457-1244 or visit www.Norridgepk.com
— Karie Angell Luc/for Pioneer Press, Island in the City Festival, July 11, 2019, Norridge