For Oswego resident Faith Rinehart, summer is never complete without a visit or two to PrairieFest, the hometown festival that she has been attending for almost a decade.
“This is something that I’ve been coming to since I was a young teenager and I’m 22 now,” Rinehart said Friday at the four-day festival being held through Sunday at PrairieFest Park at 91 Plank Drive in Oswego. “For me, there’s so many people – it’s so fun. You get to meet new people and visit the small businesses around. There’s food, there’s entertainment and everyone gets together to celebrate the same thing. We love this town, we love being here.”
Over the years, attendance at the event, presented by the Oswegoland Park District, has averaged nearly 100,000 visitors over the four-day span.
Daily attractions are offered including a community art project, petting zoo, the annual craft- and local services-focused PrairieFest Expo Village, carnival rides, food booths, music and more.
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“I’ve been here quite a few times, probably at least 10, and I like to come back because it’s a great exposure to a lot of kids, a lot of adults and gives them a chance to try some things out,” said vendor Dan Jansa, who was promoting his My Gym and Eagle Academy of Martial Arts in Aurora at the festival.
One of the biggest draws remains the nightly musical entertainment, organizers said.
Kristie Vest, director of recreation for the park district, said the festival is in its 37th year and was expanded from a three-day to a four-day festival “about 15 years ago.”
“Oswego is one of the fastest-growing suburbs in the Chicago area, and one of the things that people have always been proud of, when they live here, is the small-town feel where everybody seems to know everybody else,” she said. “As we got bigger, a community festival that brought us all together became more important, because it was four days where everybody was brought together for one interest.
“There’s always a reason why you can move to a town and just be a resident of that town. PrairieFest is a reason why you can call this your hometown,” Vest said. “A lot of what we do is bringing people together with free admission, free parking and free concerts. Someone can come here, if they wish, and never take their wallet out.”
Dawn Schindler of Oswego on Friday said she has come to the event “well over 20 times as I’ve lived here since 1997.”
“We live nearby and I walk up here and come basically every day,” Schindler said. “For me, it’s all about the lemonade and the food. This is my first year with my granddaughter so we hit the little kids stuff.”
Schindler echoed the sentiments of Vest about PrairieFest creating “that hometown atmosphere.”
“I used to teach out here in language arts and when I wander, it’s nice to see old kids or old teachers and you just wander and talk. It’s very nice,” she said.
Michael Robinson of Oswego and his wife Brittany at the event on Friday said they have lived in town “for nine years and this is the fourth time we’ve come.”
“We like the concerts. Usually, we have family come by and make the afternoon concert,” Michael Robinson said as his son Hayden, 4, was perched on his shoulders. “We try to watch the concert as much as we can until (Hayden) gets fidgety and then we go to the carnival.”
“A lot of people come out to this and it’s more than just people who live in the town,” said Brittany Robinson. “It always signals the start of summer.”
For more information on the fest, go to https://www.prairiefest.com/.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.