By: Jordan Mann
Oak Park’s Oaktoberfest ran for two days, from 6 to 10 p.m. on Friday Sept 18th and from noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday Sept. 19th. We did not attend on Friday because the weather was less than optimal. Saturday the weather was perfect. A woman working the ticket booth (she wanted to remain anonymous, probably on the lam) said the fair had to close at 9 pm on Friday due to the weather; this cut short the last live music act, Holly Williams. Admission is free, the tickets are only used to purchase beer or wine, food and soft drinks can be purchased with cash.
This is a small fest and more family orientated than most street fests, with many booths featuring activities for young children. For instance, the zucchini race car booth. For $3.00 kids could purchase a zucchini and turn it into a race car. Wheels were provided along with stickers and colored pipe cleaners for decorations. Once the cars were built they could be raced on a track managed by the Oak Park River Forest High School Cheerleaders. Up to six cars can race down a track competing against each other. Isabella Rose Reed, a very happy six year old, told us she had built two zucchini racers. Her first racer had mechanical problems so her parents let her build a second car. Isabella felt her second car “did good” in the competition.
The Flipside Academy put together a Ninja obstacle course for children. The kids were timed running the course and the best times were posted on a white board. The course actually looked kind of tough. There were also booths by Mathnasium, the Oak Park River Forest Community Foundation, the Animal Care League, Success of all Youth and the Wonder Works Child Museum among others.
Nine local restaurants had booths featuring everything from sushi to pizza to Middle Eastern faire as well as some great deserts from Sugar Fixe Patisserie and root beer floats from Cold Stone Creamery. Most of the food was priced from $5.00 to $7.00 allowing visitors to taste a few different restaurants without breaking the bank. There was also a beer booth featuring more than a dozen different craft beers for $7.00 each and a wine booth with half a dozen different wines for $7.00 per glass.
And then there was the live music; Saturday started off with kids from the Oak Park School of Rock, a group of musicians took turns rotating between songs. For their age these kids were pretty good.
By 6:30 p.m. the large crowd watched the best bands take the stage starting with Lili K. They play jazz and soul and Lillianna Kryzanek (Lili K) has a great voice, her vocals are strong and moving. At 8:30 Uncle Lucius took the stage as the final act of the fair. This is a real American down home rock band that has been touring together for decades. They really rocked Oak Park and were the perfect finale for the two day fest. A total of seven professional bands in addition to the School of Rock performed over the two days.
If you were unable to make it this year, keep this fest in mind for next year. This is an inexpensive way to hear some really good music and downtown Oak Park is only about a mile from the CUC campus.
School of rock video
Images and video courtesy of Paul Hyde
