The neighborhood street festival is one of Chicago’s great SUMMER PLEASURES, and for that we can largely thank the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council. The council created a new model for community organization, bringing together often-competing groups — labor, business, all manner of ethnic factions — around shared interests such as jobs and public health and safety. One way to find common ground was through a festival, and the monthlong FREE FAIR (later called the Chicago County Fair) offered rides, food and CRAZY CONTESTS for decades. Even if you couldn’t agree on, say, workers’ rights, no one could dispute who had the LONGEST PIGTAILS.
* Year the council, one of the oldest non-profit community groups in the U.S., was founded: 1939.
* Fundraising goal of the council’s first festival: RAT ERADICATION.
* World record for longest hair: 18 FEET, 5.54 INCHES.
* Approximate number of Chicago neighborhood festivals this summer: 400.
Sources: Tribune archives, Guinness World Records, Back of the Yards Council, Mayor’s Office of Special Events, “Back of the Yards” by Robert A. Slayton.
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