With sirens blaring and the thump of marching bands, the Gurnee Day Celebrates the Decades festival wrapped up with a bang.
The entertainment-packed event gave festival-lovers more than 50 different demonstrations, exhibits and activities to choose from during a four-day period focused on community and family fun.
The events ranged from all-age fun with a ice cream eating contest Saturday, to a more specific taste of entertainment by way of a Sunday morning car show.
Residents and business owners on Old Grand Avenue had the early morning advantage of claiming their seats for the Gurnee Days Celebrates the Decades noon parade before out-of-town visitors lined the streets. The parade, one of the final events on the last day of the festival, brought the crowd to its feet with marching bands, enthusiastic marchers cheering the crowd on and, of course, free candy.
Christian Gonzalez, attendinghis first Gurnee Days parade, said, “It’s nice,”
He said he traveled from Evanston with his daugher Chelsy and son Jacob to meet with other family members and enjoy what Gurnee had to offer.
He said his favorite part of the parade was the opening, where police marched with flags raised as fire engines sounded their sirens behind a procession of Gurnee Police Department vehicles.
“My son loves the sirens,’ Gonzalez said.
