Lakeside Festival opens today
CRYSTAL LAKE – The Lakeside Festival is ready to roll with dozens of events and activities planned for the four-day celebration.
The Lakeside Festival starts at 4 p.m. today at the Lakeside Legacy Arts Park, 401 Country Club Road, and continues through Sunday. The festival will include live music, food, games, carnival rides, and a variety of family activities.
“We are supposed to have great weather this weekend so we have high hopes,” said Terry Legare, executive director of Lakeside Legacy Foundation.
Legare said as many as 50,000 people are expected to attend the festival, which is the Lakeside Legacy Foundation’s largest annual fundraiser. Money raised by the event funds the nonprofit organization’s mission, such as art education and restoration of the historic Dole Mansion.
Throughout the festival, attendees will be able to sample from of food items at Taste by the Lake. Participating vendors include KaleidoScoops, Home Bakery, King Wok, Mr. Funnel, Sweet Stop, Plum Garden, Georgio’s, Brother’s BBQ, Culver’s, Jamba Juice, Papa Saverio’s, and Joseph’s Market.
Tours of the Dole Mansion will take place throughout the festival, along with visits to the art studios and galleries. Beer, wine and tropical drink gardens will operate each day.
Today’s activities have a Caribbean island theme with Bad Looking Hawaiian Shirt Day and music from Pirates Over 40, a Jimmy Buffett tribute band. Other musical acts at the festival include Jim Gill, Six Pack, Kim Wolff Band, Hi Infidelity, Probable Cause, Thomas Nicholas Band, Bottle of Justus, Eve 6, Gregory B, Booze Brothers, and Smoking Popes.
A 96-team bag-toss game tournament is slated for Friday and will run from 1:30 to 5 p.m. Several bands are expected to perform on stages set up at the park throughout the day.
A children’s decorated bike parade is to start at Dole and Leonard Parkway and end at the Festival on Saturday. The traditional Fourth of July Parade down Dole Avenue is set for Sunday. Fireworks, paid for by the city of Crystal Lake, will be at dusk Sunday over the lake.
Admission to the festival costs $4. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and seniors 65 and older will pay $2. Those with an active military ID will not be charged.
Plans to put Crystal Lake in the Guinness World Records book by baking the world’s largest cupcake during the festival have been scrapped. Fantasy Cakes, an Illinois company, was scheduled to bake a cupcake weighing more than 60 pounds on behalf of the Cakes4Kids charity Saturday, but company catering director Mike Watson said last-minute hang ups forced a change of venue. The cupcake is now set to be baked in Chicago and transported to Portage, Ind., he said.