Allways very well run and organized. Thery ahve a great carnival and large food offering. There is…read morea ton of different other activaties from bingo to hockey skills. One of the resons its so good is the quality of the volunteers, they are the heartbeat of the festival. We have been a vendor at the marketplace for the last few years and its the best one of any of the city festivals. Its worth the trip to check out, there is something for everyone.

A great Fourth of July festival. Frontier Days is a must see. The most fun you will have in five…read moredays. The activities during the day are geared toward families and great entertainment at night. The best part is that admission is free. Food and beer are available to purchase and at reasonable prices. The "Red Shirt" volunteers put in a great deal of care and effort and it shows. On Independence Day, I attended the parade and it is THE BEST parade that I have ever seen. The focus is on fun with a capital F. Before the band on the first night I saw them present scholarships. What a great way to give back to the community! Beyond the regular carnival activities are some very special and unique activities that make Frontier Days special. Among them are bingo, pony rides, pie eating contest, rib eating contest, cake decorating, dog frisbee, corn hole, water fights, soccer tournament, volleyball tournament, spikeball tournament, etc. The family fun stage is filled with lots of amazing entertainment such as the pet parade, magicians, reptile show, dancers, clowns, police demonstrations, and music acts. The best part of the festival for me is the Citizens with Disabilities day. This is a day where citizens with disabilities and their families can ride in the carnival without the big crowds and with accessibility considerations. This is followed by a great lunch and entertainment for the families. Frontier days is definitely a magical way to spend the Fourth of July weekend!

Art festival that is not overly crowded so you can actually enjoy yourself and see mall the amazing…read moreartwork. There's all types of art to admire. Glen or is a suburb that's very nice and safe and to enjoy it in a beautiful day makes it better. There's street parking around the festival for easy access to downtown Glencoe and if you don't drive there is a Metra station so you can sit back and relax on the way here without driving.

Great community event every year. Entertainment, carnival,…read moregames and food make this a fun event for all ages. School Of Rock Glenbrook Show Team rocked it on stage.

We went on a Saturday afternoon too see our granddaughter perform with the Glenbrook School of…read moreRock. It was not too crowded but parking was still a challenge. Mainly street parking so prepare to walk! There was no admission to attend. This is your typical community festival offering local foods and entertainment in addition to the typical carnival foods and rides. Prices are higher than other local festivals but it's a great way to bring the community together for 5 days!

Love this festival…read more Pros: -Free to attend. -Lighted pumpkins wall for festive Autumn Instagram pics. -I live around the area, 10 mins away, know it well so it's easy for me to score street parking but they have free shuttles via Fort Sheridan reserve parking. -Great bands on at least a couple of different stages. -Lots of food trucks, lines run from no wait to 20 min wait. It's also located on the Highwood restaurant & bar strip. Plenty of food options & you could easily score a bar seat to take a break. -Safe crowd & police presence around. -It is right at the Metra stop should you decide to leave your car behind.

It's a must see event for fall! Endless pumpkins to…read morecelebrate the beginning of the season with many activities for families in the heart of Highwood! There's many restaurants near by to explore while enjoying the arrival of pumpkins.

Pew pew pew! I love me some fireworks, especially during our nation's birthday. I've been to this…read moreone twice and I like it due to the accessibility. I'm not a fan of crowds or traffic, so you won't see me at Navy Pier. This place is located at the Maine East grounds, which is easy to get to. It's right-off of 294 Dempster exit and if you're not greedy and care to park super-close, you can find parking less than a 3/4 mile away on one of Northwest Highway's side streets. I usually park near there and walk, as walking down to Potter Road, you'll be met with lots of foot traffic and car traffic. The fireworks are at the stadium, so you can sit there, or there's plenty of grassy area to sit down, and just perch, waiting for the sun to set and the firework show to begin. I generally park in the grassy area as I feel it makes an easy exit, but if you want the up-close and personal feel, as if you were on the front row of a movie theater, stadium seating might be the way to go for you. But overall, the place didn't feel super crowded, and it didn't feel like you were sitting on top of each other. Plenty of porta-potties and there's even a reasonably priced concession stand near the stadium. As of 2018, nachos were only $4, there's freeze-pops for only $3, and drinks were cheap too. The fireworks itself was pretty good. It started near sunset, at around ~920PM CST or so, and lasts for about 20-minutes or so. There's a music track playing in the background while this happens. Overall, great display. So if you're looking for a place for fireworks, that's not too crazy busy, but a good time, definitely check out this fireworks display. Happy 4th, yo!

We've been having a heatwave and daily thunderstorms so it was questionable whether this event…read morewould take place. For 2026, they moved the start time an hour early to avoid rain. Before the fireworks, they had some kids games, a band, and maybe more. Maine East had their concession stand open too, serving pizza, cotton candy, drinks, hot dogs, etc. There was a good crowd, but the lightning detection system went off five minutes after the fireworks started and they asked folks to head out. That's ok, I'd rather be safe. The biggest issue was concerned was parking--specifically, preferred parking. I bought a pass since it was our first time attending and had no frame of reference for how difficult it would be to find a parking spot, how long it would take to get out, and so on. Here are my issues with the ($30-40) preferred parking: - Tailgating. I don't have a problem in theory--the execution is a problem. Tailgating needs to be parked separately from those who aren't, easily achieved by selling tailgating and non-tailgating passes. Or they could have an end time for tailgating. Because when we were leaving due to the Thorguard alarm going off per the organizer's request, some of us were trying to get to our cars through a bunch of tailgating that was blocking a dozen or more cars in. Our car was by another party leaving; the tailgates started one car away from us. Not one of those people moved at all. We had to back out of our spaces, carefully avoiding people. And it may have been the same even if everything had gone as planned this year since they may have wanted to continue tailgating past the end of the show. This is why I say they need to either have a space reserved for tailgaters--preferably further away from the exit, to make it easier for non-tailgaters to get out--or they need to make sure people pack up their gear by a certain time, and enforce it. - The volunteers disappear at some point. When we left I didn't see any volunteers in the parking lot. I'm not sure there were any near the entrance, because cars were still entering the preferred lot (so, they hadn't blocked it off to arriving traffic even though they were telling people to leave). This caused issues trying to exit. When I was backing out, some guy who I think was one of the tailgaters was kinda guiding me out, and there were cars entering the parking lot that were waiting for me as I was backing up. I think that entrance may have been the planned exit for the lot (according the the note enclosed with my parking pass detailing the original plan, you could only enter that lot until 8:45, so if it had started after 9 as planned that could have been used for an exit). As it was, that entrance was blocked since there were cars entering. Those of us trying to leave had literally nowhere to exit since cars were entering there and there were tailgaters down many of the rows, blocking us from driving down the parking rows. I had to get out of my car to move a barricade out of the way because there was nowhere else for those of us exiting to go. There was no one--not a police officer, park district employee, etc.--directing traffic, creating an exit, or making people pack up to leave. - Cars are parked in diagonally, rather than straight. I guess perhaps this is for the ease of the volunteers so they don't have to try and convince people to park straight (who would probably park poorly anyway) but as someone who helped park cars for football games for about 10 years from the time I was 11, it's the most efficient way to do it.

Best craft beer fest I've been to in quite some time!…read more Normally when a new beer festival gives it a go, there are some logistical issues and things that need tweaks. Well this was the first time they threw this festival, and I honestly didn't find much to fault them on. Parking was well organized. There was a free parking lot across the street and buses taking people from the parking to the fest. Demographic skewed slightly older but it's to be expected in Glenview. Glenview is my hometown and I had a strong feeling most fest goers would be a bit older than my friend and I. Awesome selection of breweries including many local favorites and others from around the nation, 35 in total. I have a feeling they could get even more breweries on board next year! They could also add some more food vendors for next year. Tickets were $35-50 depending when you purchased them and proceeds went towards supporting The Grove. The Grove was a perfect venue with vendors spread out enough so there wasn't congestion and I never had to deal with lines for beer more than a few people long. I did wish there were more rare beer offerings, but was still happy with the selection. Also, even though the fest went until 10pm, most places ran out of beer at 9pm and they ran out of the good/more rare/fancy beers just a hour in around 8pm. Other good points of the fest is they had ample seating, way more than enough. I've been to so many beer fests were they simple did not provide anywhere to sit and it was torture. The live music was really good with many solid covers being played - everyone was having fun! When it got dark out, they brought out huge lighting - they were well prepared. We actually had volunteers come up and ask us what we thought of the fest, how they could improve, etc. Never have I seen such a thing at a beer fest! Loved, loved, loved this! The Grove Craft Beer & Wine Festival was so well organized, well spread out, great music, great beers, beyond amazing staff and just was a win overall - great value for the ticket. I absolutely will be going next year.

This was the first year we attended the Grove Craft Beer & Wine Festival in Glenview, which…read morehappened this past Friday. My partner purchased a super early bird VIP ticket. The VIP ticket allowed her five extra drink samples -- in addition to the twenty you already got with general admission purchase -- early entry, as well as the ability to park closer to the venue. She bought me the Designated Driver (DD) ticket, which was considerably less expensive and allowed me free water, according to the Grove website. I understand this event is to help support the efforts at the historic Grove location, but the tickets are still exorbitant for what you get, in my opinion. When we first entered, no one bothered to even check if we did indeed have VIP tickets in order to park closer. If we didn't have the tickets, we could have just said we did and gotten in. The volunteers also weren't very good at explaining where they wanted us to go. After parking, there were no signs anywhere that should have directed us to a field across a road from the VIP parking in which we had to pick up our event passes. We had to ask a random person where they got them. At the registration table, the volunteer mistakenly gave me a VIP wristband as well as the three-ounce sampling glass, despite having a DD ticket, I guess because my partner had the VIP ticket and she put both of our tickets on the table together. I didn't quite understand what was happening until after, so didn't question it. I didn't matter as I wasn't drinking. But I essentially got an $85 pass for $20. Tents were set up in the middle of a large field, which is surrounded by woods, where each of the breweries had their samples. What is supposed to happen is that every time you get a sample, the brewery should mark off a punchcard given to you at registration. Except it got so busy that most of the breweries didn't bother with this. This means that the VIP ticket is essentially worthless unless you simply want to park closer. You can drink as much as you want. If you're a vegetarian, make sure you eat before you come. There were four food vendors, and two of them sold bratwurst (Whole Foods offered bratwurst and chicken-and-apple sausage). One had pizza, and another had chicken sliders and chips and salsa. My partner ate chips for a meal because there was nothing else she could eat. Of course, this being late July it was very, very hot. I asked two different volunteers where the DDs were supposed to be able to get free water, and one said there was a water station set up near the tents. Nope, there wasn't. Food vendors were selling water for $1. There was an air conditioned part of the building only VIPs were allowed to enter, where they had tables set up. I guess if you're prone to heat that might be worth paying for. As the sun started to go down it became more crowded. It would be better to come after the sun goes down because it's cooler, but then you have to deal with more people. Also, you REALLY need to bring bug repellent if you plan on staying after dusk. If you plan on going next year, don't bother wasting money on a VIP ticket. Buy general admission, drink as much as you want, and bring bug repellent. It was good to experience as we had never been to the Grove before, but I don't know if we'll bother next year.

Nearly every Independence Day, my family and I gather in the ED Rudolph Velodrome of the Northbrook…read morePark District to watch the Northbrook fireworks. Decades ago, before I got married, I loved taking leisurely walks from our home to the velodrome with my parents. Sometimes my grandmother would join us when she was visiting. At that time, spectators were only allowed to sit on the bleachers behind the track. Before the fireworks show, the infield would host inter-school marching band competitions, which we always enjoyed watching. The fireworks were launched from inside the velodrome, bursting spectacularly overhead, sometimes raining sparks over the infield, where some bold attendees would rush to sit despite the warnings. Today, the setup has changed. The marching band performances are no longer part of the event, and the fireworks are now launched from outside the velodrome, making them visible across Meadowhill Park and Techny Prairie Park and Fields. Still, we prefer to watch from inside the velodrome, our favorite spot. While my family still lives in town, we no longer live within walking distance of the velodrome. But we've kept the tradition alive. Each year, we park around downtown Northbrook and enjoy the pleasant 15-minute walk to the velodrome. It adds to the festive spirit and brings back a bit of the feeling from those days long ago. Now, spectators are welcome on the grassy infield. When we arrived this year, a DJ was entertaining the crowd before the fireworks. Families and children were fully immersed in the festive atmosphere. We brought lawn chairs, settled in, and enjoyed the energy of the evening. The fireworks were spectacular as always, a dazzling end to a perfect night. My parents and grandmother have since passed on, but each year as the fireworks light up the sky, I like to think they're watching from above, smiling with us, still a part of this beloved family tradition. I also appreciate the chance to capture beautiful photos of the fireworks. It used to take professional equipment to photograph them vividly against the night sky. Now, I feel so fortunate to have unobstructed seats and the ability to shoot stunning fireworks photos right from my phone, and the pictures turn out wonderfully!

I look forward to the Festival of Fine Craft every year. This year the weather was super funky so I…read moredidn't get the chance to enjoy it as much as I would have liked, but all in all it seemed well organized, the music was enjoyable, and there were lots of umbrella tables to sit at to enjoy the outside food vendors. The only thing I particularly noticed that kind of bummed me out a little was the fact that there was SO MUCH jewelry! This is great for those who wear a lot of it, and I'm certain the North Shore is a wonderful market for this, but I felt like it should have been advertised more as a show with a jewelry focus (honestly, I'm not sure how I would feel if I was a jewelry vendor...lots of competition). I missed the fun folksy painters this year (not that there weren't a few great ones), but it just seemed like the balance of artisans was a bit off (though Port Clinton Art Festival is right around the corner!). Overall the festival was very family-oriented, and they had a section of booths with kids painting projects...I believe hosted by Make-A-Messterpiece in Glenview. I have to say it was also surprisingly quiet when we went late Saturday afternoon, but it's possible the threat of rain kept people away. I still love this festival, as it reminds me that the summer is here, but I hope they consider a broad focus next year. Looking forward to 2014!