The smell of funnel cakes and the promise of fun brought the crowds to Jackson Avenue Friday night to kick off the annual Last Fling festival.
The event, which runs through Monday, helps Naperville bid adieu to summer with rides, musical acts and all the fried food your heart desires.
“It is music, food, family and fun,” sponsorship chair Jodi Bernicky said of the annual Naperville Jaycees event. “It’s a chance for everyone to celebrate the rest of summer and propel themselves into the fall.”
For the third year, the Last Fling has been a scaled-down affair, restricted to Jackson Avenue. The Jaycees downsized the event in 2021 during the pandemic, moving it away from Rotary Hill, and decided to keep it that way after they realized they could make more money with no nationally known musical headliners, which can be expensive to book. That’s important since profits from the event support local civic projects and nonprofit organizations.
“We’ve been planning this for months and months and months,” Bernicky said, as crowds gathered in the beer garden behind her. “For us, it’s a sigh of relief when we open up and people are ready and want to party with us.”
Some groups are also raising money at the festival. The Naperville American Legion Riders is selling RED (Remember Everyone Deployed) shirts and hats with all the proceeds going to Camp Hometown Heroes, a week-long overnight summer camp for the kids and siblings of fallen service members.
“The community’s been awesome,” said Steve Strickland, director of the local American Legion Riders, as local rock band Mixtape Junkies jammed nearby on the main stage. “We’ve met so many people who say, ‘I don’t need a shirt or a hat. Here’s a donation for the cause.'”
Saturday featured a spaghetti-eating contest, water balloon toss, and dunk tank with the chance to soak Naperville officials and “celebrities.” Still to come Sunday and Monday are a reptile show, a mermaid princess meet-and-greet and singalong, and a family fun foam party. Sunday is also Special Needs Day with priority rides and special wristbands at the carnival for guests with special needs.
“I really like the reptiles,” said Genavive Bernicky, 8, who’s Jodi’s daughter. “Last year I got to meet the cousin of the Komodo dragon.”
On Friday, with the feel of later summer in the air and screams of kids on carnival rides, a sunny afternoon gave way to a near perfect evening. One of the most popular attractions was the Freak Out, which swung howling teenagers 60 feet into the air, sideways and upside-down. A line of adolescents snaked around a temporary fence waiting for the chance at an adrenaline rush, security guards herding them like cattle.
“It was good!” 14-year-old Naperville resident Rylee Sri said as she got off the ride with a group of friends, whose emotions ranged from alarmingly calm to sweating and exhilarated. And, with that, they were off to Zero Gravity, to be spun while stuck to a wall as the clock continued to tick on summer 2023.
Giles Bruce is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
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