Fall into fun: Festivals celebrate harvest, history, more

By JAMI KUNZER - jkunzer@nwherald.com

Dylan Batton of Crystal Lake consumes handfulls of apple pie during the pie-eating contest at last year's Johnny Appleseed Festival. (Northwest Herald file photo)

A festival and a crisp fall day go together like taffy and apples.

At events throughout McHenry County and the Chicago area, you can take in some history or simply take home a pumpkin.

“Spend a day or a weekend and really enjoy our country atmosphere, pick apples, go to a corn maze, visit a farm or just drive the country roads,” said Cort Carlson, executive director of the McHenry County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. “It’s a nice getaway, but it’s close to home.”

The Harvest Fest and Fair on the Square this Sunday in Woodstock offers a craft fair, a farmer’s market and an antique show. After meandering through the booths, you can settle in for some music dating back to the 1920s.

In its 14th year, the Harvest Festival started as a single fiddle contest, event organizer Keith Johnson said.

An audience now fills the Square to watch musicians compete in banjo, guitar, mandolin and fiddle contests for prizes of up to $300, he said.

The display of tractors and other antiques adds to the old-time feel of the event, he said.
“The idea is to step back a little bit in time,” he said.

That theme is taken even further at one of the county’s largest festivals, the McHenry County Conservation District’s Trail of History this October at Glacial Park in Ringwood.

Re-enactors basically turn the park into the Northwest Territory from 1670 to 1859 by creating more than 100 encampments.

The historic event typically draws more than 10,000 people, said Wendy Kummerer, communications manager for the McHenry County Conservation District.

“They can see what life was before the days of iPods and cell phones,” she said.

Throughout the weekend-long event, re-enactors from the tri-state area stay in character the entire time.
“They really live and act the way the settlers would have in the 1600s,” Kummerer said. “A visitor to the event would get a sampling of all that was happening in that time, from the military re-enactments to the kitchen, what it took to put a meal on the table, to driving the cattle to fur-traders.”

If you’re in the mood for something slightly more modern, visit Navy Pier in Chicago basically any weekend this October.

A traveling sideshow of circus performers, contortionists, a fortune teller and life-size human puppets will transform Navy Pier into A Carnival of Curiosities beginning Oct. 2.

And beginning 9 p.m. today, Navy Pier will present its fall fireworks at 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 31.

Closer to home, Settlers’ Days from Oct. 8-12 in Marengo offers a parade and carnival along with a “Saturday Night on Main Street” event and the Band Field Show Competition on Sunday.

“It seems to be getting a little bigger every year and we’re always looking to add new things,” event chair Linda Hadlock said.

Like pretty much all of the area’s events, the festival is all about family fun.

Same goes for the popular Scarecrow Festival this October in St. Charles.

Yes, the display of hand-crafted Scarecrows is the main draw, but a make-your-own scarecrow event is becoming a huge attraction as well, said Kathy Loubsky, festival coordinator and social director of the St. Charles Visitor’s Bureau, which hosts the event.

“They can actually go home with a scarecrow to put in their garden,” she said.

Below is information on these festivals as well as others taking place throughout the area.

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HARVEST FEST AND FAIR IN THE SQUARE

Sunday, Woodstock Square

Event includes homemade crafts, a farmers market, spinners and weavers, a blacksmith demonstration and a fiddlers’ contest.

Information: www.offsquaremusic.org or 815-338-5146

SHADES OF AUTUMN

Every weekend through Nov. 1, Stade’s Farm and Market, McHenry

Experience a day on the farm with corn maze, pumpkin picking, barrel train, crafters, pedal cars and more.

Information: www.shadesofautumn.net or 815-675-6396

HERITAGE FEST

Today through Sunday, downtown West Dundee

Festival includes chili cook-off, fireworks, live entertainment, food and beverages, arts and crafts, business expo, antique show, classic car show, live historic displays and children’s activities.

Information: www.wdundeeheritagefest.org or 847-551-3800

HUNTLEY FALL FEST

Sept. 25-26, Deicke Park, Huntley

Event features a pancake breakfast, car and tractor shows, art show, children’s activities and fireworks, as well as live music from Tongue N Groove, Modern Day Romeos, Denny Diamond and 7th Heaven.

Information: www.huntleyfallfest.org or 847-669-3180

VON BERGEN ANTIQUE TRACTOR & EQUIPMENT SHOW

Sept. 26, Von Bergen Market, Hebron

Tractors and harvest of the crops on display as well as food, corn maze, pony rides, farm animal zoo, face painting and a pedal tractor pull.

Information: www.vonbergens.com or 815-648-2332

JOHNNY APPLESEED FESTIVAL

Sept. 26, downtown Crystal Lake

Event includes music, pony rides, petting zoo, pumpkin bowling, apple pie eating contest, storytelling, wagon rides and farmers market.

Information: www.down towncl.org or 815-479-0835

CARNIVAL OF CURIOSITIES

Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in October, Navy Pier, Chicago

Explore as a traveling sideshow overtakes Navy Pier with a spectacle of circus feats and living human wonders.

Information: www.navypier.com or 800-595-PIER

LONG GROVE APPLE FESTIVAL

Oct. 2-4, downtown Long Grove

Festival features “make your own taffy apple” booths, apple martinis, caramel apple lattes and other apple-inspired treats, kids’ activities and live music.

Information: www.long groveonline.com/apple.html or call 847-634-0888

HARVEST FESTIVAL

Oct. 3-4, Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe

Visitors will find a marketplace of  baked goods, roasted nuts, cut flowers, handmade soaps and vegetables. Enjoy activities, such as “guess the weight of the pumpkin,” a straw bale maze and leaf rubbing crafts.

Information: www.chicagobotanic.org or 847-835-5440

FRIGHT FEST AT SIX FLAGS GREAT AMERICA

Oct. 3-31, Gurnee

Great America is transformed into a Halloween playground. Shows, street entertainment and haunted houses featured.

Information: www.sixflags.com

CIDER FESTIVAL

Oct. 4, Union

Musical entertainment by “Charlie B. and Friends” as well as apple head doll crafts, a barn raising, harvest demonstrations, blacksmithing and old-fashioned cider making.

Information: www.mchs online.org or 815-923-2267

SCARECROW FESTIVAL

Oct. 9-11, downtown St. Charles

Three-day fest includes a children’s carnival, craft show, live music and more than 100 hand-crafted scarecrows.

Information: www.scarecrowfest.com or 800-777-4373

SETTLER’S DAYS

Oct. 8-12, Marengo

Parade as well as arts and crafts, petting zoo, carnival rides, antique tractor display, car show food and entertainment.

Information: settlersdays.org or 815-568-6680

OLD TIME COUNTRY HARVEST FESTIVAL

Oct. 10, downtown Algonquin

Event features farmers’ market, children’s games, pumpkin contest, craft fair and more.

Information: www.downtownalgonquin.org or 847-658-4184

FALL DIDDLEY

Oct. 10-11, Boone County Fairgrounds, Belvidere

Juried arts and crafts show will offer hand-crafted items. Event benefits the Mental Health Resource League for McHenry County and includes hundreds of booths, as well as food vendors.

Information: www.mhrl.org or 815-385-5745

HAUNTED HARVEST

Oct. 10-31, Lambs Farm, Libertyville

Event features Train of Terror, transforming the farmyard with frightening activities, including the CreatureWalk, Graveyard Golf, an Enchanted Carousel and the Monster Midway.

Information: www.lambsfarm.org or 847 990-3750

AUTUMN DRIVE

Oct. 16-18, Garden Valley Road between Woodstock and Marengo

Annual event offers the chance to drive a real country road to a dozen rural McHenry County farms. Various stops offer antiques, arts and crafts, pumpkins and other surprises.

Information: www.autumndrive.net

LONG GROVE OKTBERFEST

Oct. 17-18, Long Grove

Celebration of Long Grove’s German heritage with ethnic food, dancing, live entertainment and shopping.

Information: www.longgroveonline.com or 847-634-0888

TRAIL OF HISTORY

Oct. 17, Glacial Park, Ringwood

Living history re-enactment of the Northwest Territory from 1670 to 1850. Interpreters portray settler life. Includes family activities, food and entertainment.

Information: www.mccdistrict.org or 815-338-6223

SYCAMORE PUMPKIN FESTIVAL

Oct. 21-25, Sycamore

Fest features a pumpkin display, scary stories, carnival and craft show.

Information: www.sycamore pumpkinfestival.com

HISTORIC HALLOWEEN PROGRAM

Oct. 21, McHenry County Historical Museum, Union

Listen to stories told by interpreters portraying Union veterans who formed the Grand Army of the Republic Associations after the Civil War.

Information: mchsonline.org or 815-923-2267