This is one of my favorite summer festival to come and enjoy with my family. Great Food,…read moreEntertainment and Good Vibes. I have been coming here for many years and the vibes have always been good. The food prices are very reasonable. Food & Drinks range from $3.00 to maybe $6.00 if that much. Very inexpensive and budget friendly. This festival is a place for you to try different authentic foods, music and good vibes. You can shop the vendors tents and find some cool things to purchase. There are several stages where you can enjoy a live concert. There is a carnival with a few rides for the kids to stay entertained. I always look forward to coming here year. Taste of Melrose Park is always around the first week in September.

A bunch of us checked out the Taste of Melrose Park during Labor Day weekend. This is a food fest…read morewith free admission. Amazingly every food item was priced at $3 or less. It was fun to try all sorts of tasty foods. Many of them were Italian bites but there were other Mexican-style foods as well. We enjoyed items such as Italian beef, arancini, flat "fried meatball" sandwich, a "salad sandwich" that was quite good because of the fresh bread, cheese fries, cannoli, root beer float, slushie and a lovely serving of sfingi (freshly made "donut holes" made by nuns, how can you top that?). There are fair faves such as promotional freebies, carnival rides, a guy on stilts, and a clown pushing a mini-clown in a stroller (wha wha??). There is some entertainment as well (we heard bagpipers after someone belted out the Star Spangled Banner). This was sort of a folksy food fest, and the price was right. If you are looking for something fun to do next Labor Day weekend in the 'burbs, keep Taste of Melrose Park in mind.

One of the best of the best summer weekend festivals around Chicago. Hungry - choose from around 25…read morelocal vendors; thirsty - no problem; games and rides for the kids - voila!; Music - nearly non-stop - vendors with clothing, crafts, jewelry, toys, beauty items, candles - enjoy. See you next year!

I have not been to Taste of Elmwood for decades and it has not changed. It had several food…read morevendors, at reasonable prices. Everything from Italian, Mexican and American. To purchase alcoholic drinks you are required to get carded and a wristband, regardless of age. Cocktails were good, but a bit pricey for the size. There were music events throughout the fest.

Free party? I'm…read morethere. Okay, this isn't your traditional party. In fact, it's more like free, live, outdoor entertainment in coordination with many of the area's independent businesses, but it's a nice way to spend an evening while roaming through Elmhurst's bustling City Centre. Here's the deal: From Memorial Day to Labor Day, every Wednesday and Saturday evening from 6-9pm, downtown Elmhurst's City Centre hosts a variety of talented musician under tented pop-ups throughout the city. Most are in areas that overlook outdoor patios or have plenty of public seating to enjoy. The acts, as far as I witnessed, were pretty outstanding, although the temporary tents make for a very casual, almost easy to miss, setting. We kept walking through downtown Elmhurst and thinking we were just hearing some loud speakers from a nearby bar that was playing Kings of Leon, Darius Rucker, LIVE, Bob Dylan and other well-known artists on a jukebox or something, but it wasn't. It was the sounds from the four different tents set up through downtown Elmhurst carrying over. The whole thing was really cool and very unexpected as we'd just kept kind of wandering into these neat pop-up live shows on different corners. Each band, singer, duo, etc really shocked us with their level of talent and performances. For me, being hard of hearing, it was better than going to a concert because here I could actually hear every note and word clear s day. Some of the tents were busier than others, but I think that was due to some areas being better for seating and such, but in any case, mild crowds formed, families danced, young girls swooned, it turned our leisurely stroll around the town into a really romantic night. In addition to the musical acts, area businesses offer super drink food and drink specials and I believe, if you stop by the City Centre office during daytime hours, and ask nicely, they have little postcard type gift certificates for $5 good at almost all the downtown Elmhurst businesses and a great excuse to stop for a beer or wine. On Wednesday I believe there's also a classic car show, so it probably gets pretty crowded, but on our Saturday stroll, the conditions were perfect, it wasn't at crazy. Again, the set up is really casual and you could walk by and just catch a few musical moments, but it's worth it to grab a coffee or grub at a nearby biz and set up shop near one of the pitch-perfect tents for a relaxing and budget-friendly evening.

Edison Park Fest is a fantastic weekend neighborhood festival located in, well, Edison Park. If…read moreyou're not familiar with Edison Park, it's a neighborhood of Chicago north of Harlem Ave, on Northwest Highway, just south of Park Ridge. Edison Park fest spans several blocks and runs parallel to the Union Pacific Northwest Metra line. The festival totes two music stages, plenty of port o potties, several good vendors, a kids section, traveling carnival games,and several business vendor tents. There's pretty much something for everybody. Edison Park fest was well organized and spaced-out. I really had a good time walking around, sipping a beer, and perusing the many business tents. Metal barricades stops any temptation to trample on any residential front lawns running along this neighborhood festival, so make sure you get in on either Oliphant Ave or Ozark Ave. I had a really good time. So if you are in the north side and looking for a street festival without the crazy amount of crowds, definitely check out Edison Park fest.

Edison Park fest is a decent street festival located on the far North side of the city. The fest…read moreruns in mid August and always draws a healthy crowd. Edison Park is home to many police / first responders so you know it is going to be safe here. The crowd from here can get a little sketchy, but it is always a good time. The fest is between the Metra stop and Moretti's and spans a few city blocks. The food here is standard carnival fare. Nothing too great that I saw, but I enjoyed the fresh squeezed lemonade. They have vendors that serve up everything - most unhealthy, but delicious. Prices aren't too bad and the lines were pretty short when I went on a Saturday. There is a giant area of kids bouncy castles. These are pay as you go and is managed by an outside company. Some rides are good and take a few minutes, others are over in 30 seconds. They all cost $2-$3 each, so choose wisely if you don't splurge on the $30 day pass. There are several live music acts performing all weekend. It isn't my cup of tea, but people seem to like the 80s/90s rock cover bands. Rock on!

This was my first Oktoberfest and I greatly enjoyed it!…read more There was German beer, food, and music! Now that's a real Oktoberfest or I would like to think so because Oktoberfest orginated from Germany and how can you have one without all the German goods? The event is quite small, but the crowd was great! People enjoying music and participated in German dances! I got to try some real German food, which made the foodie in me extremely happy! My favorites were the German potato salad and spaetzle (egg noodle)! The spaetzle came with a gravy, which made it deliciously flavorful! For you non-adventurers there were the basic hot dogs, pretzels, chips, etc. The bf and fam enjoyed the food and German beer also. They even bought some huge glass jugs with a German logo on it! Fun times, wish it was bigger and more German cuisines.

Ugly fest too depresed festival. Too small, too poor definitely if you wanna waste your time go…read more Watch tv is better. Sorry but I not recommended. Only if you wanna eat German food it's ok.

Average small festival. Bad bands, hardly any rides and terrible food. But it's free and the…read morefireworks are good!

Still a great go-to event in the suburbs of Chicago. Definitely not as crowded as the Taste of…read moreChicago, with enough food vendors to try out and spend an hour or so on. Venue is setup with lots of space and shaded seating area near the Park Ridge Metra station. There is a large stage area with entertainment on the east-side of the venue. This place sells food by the ticket, so the layer of abstraction helps with not knowing you're paying $12 worth of tickets for two chicken skewers and rice. Most food items worth trying out are around 8 to 12 tickets, with prices, as of 2023, being $10 for a strip of 8 tickets. No surcharge for cash, but if you only have plastic, they do apply a surcharge. In either case, still better than $30 for a piece of lettuce at the Taste of Chicago, wading through a large crowd, while hoping to not have your food bumped out of your hand from an unaware crowd. BATHROOM REVIEW: Plenty of port-a-potties, with mine being pleasant and clean. Not a lot of use so far when I went around 2PM on a Saturday afternoon. We'll see, as the festival goes on with drunks destroying the bathroom. But for now, sit or squat? Squat... it's still a port-a-potty.

A very large and rude police officer forced me and a large group of people to miss the 10:57 train…read moreon 07/11 at park ridge Metra. I tried to cross to the train and he shouted at me and asked for my id when I did not hear him. Me and a lot of others had fo spend 50+ dollars on Uber's instead of the train thanks to him. It was great until then. He was really rude but all vendors are nice.

My first time attending while visiting and didn't know what to expect. It was about $25 to get in,…read morebut when I found out it was a concert/fair/festival rolled into one I didn't mind! Many good food vendors with hefty places at cheap prices. And the entertainment acts were great.

I attended a few years back and decided to go again this year. The $20 admission was off-putting…read morebut everyone seemed to be in a good mood. I wasn't crazy about the blatant campaigning by a local alderman, and it seemed as if there were way fewer food vendors than last time. We split the rice and jibarito with pork, and I was dying for arepas, and the did not disappoint! The coconut ice milk was very good, but very hard to eat of the half coconut they used as a bowl. The Moderno liquor with vodka or rum or tequila was good, and the 'lounge' for sampling was a nice touch. I was quite disappointed that the restaurant '90 Miles Cuban' was ONLY IN THE VIP SECTION!! I really liked their food and style of cooking, and they seemed to have shunned the 'common folk'. What was with the pony and camel rides for kids?? Yes they get bored, I'm ok with ponys but a camel seems cruel and excessive. The music was awesome, and I admired the way some artists did not translate their speeches.