The Labor Day weekend was packed with festivals throughout the Fox Valley including Oswego, which rolled out the 30th year of PrairieFest – a four-day bash that opened Friday afternoon and will run through Labor Day on Monday.
The Oswegoland Park District welcomed guests to PrairieFest Park at 91 Plank Drive, where a total of 75,000 were expected to come throughout the weekend, making it one of the most heavily attended events in the area.
The free event included an expo village, food, carnival rides, children’s animal attractions including pony rides and a petting zoo as well as a touch-a-truck event.
There were also daily trampoline shows, face painting and a tag team cotton candy eating contest, along with a full complement of musical acts on the main stage.
The Oswego Brewing Company again brewed its PrairieFest Ale especially for the event.
Superintendent of Events and Cultural Arts for the Oswegoland Park District Kristie Vest said this year’s event was forced to be moved from its usual Father’s Day weekend in June to September because of the pandemic. Musical acts, she said, could have been rearranged but the carnival provider – Windy City Amusements – only had an opening Labor Day weekend.
“We had to make the decision in January of 2021, and the world wasn’t ready to say they were going to be open in June so we had to push it off,” Vest said. “We knew that this also competed with the Yorkville celebration (Hometown Days) and they were super gracious about it and completely understood for one year only we were going to do this. We always will be Father’s Day weekend.”
Vest said the fest has grown as Oswego “has become a bigger community” adding that “the community project element” makes the local fest unique.
“We made sure that everyone’s favorites are here and everything in still in place in terms of the parade and the races and the carnival and the food,” she said. “One of the things that make this different is having blood drives and pet rescue events and learning CPR on the grounds and we have a raffle (to benefit) a retired Oswego police officer. There’s a lot going on while people are having all this fun and we’ve made sure that that hasn’t stopped in 2021.”
Tents with vendors offering products, services and demonstrations were also on hand including Master Cho’s Global Leaders Taekwondo from Oswego.
Master Jin Kim of Aurora said he wanted to be part of the fest “because we are working to offer discipline to people because it’s impossible to see good respect these days to other people.”
“We want to teach other people to show respect and being nice to others,” he said. “This fest is very important also for people to find information they wouldn’t otherwise have.”
Riley Pec of Oswego said this was her first year at the festival but knew it was usually held on Father’s Day weekend.
“I’m glad it’s this weekend as we usually can’t come on Father’s Day weekend so we were happy it got moved – it’s not super-hot and we’re here for the afternoon,” she said looking at her children. “We’ve already done a few rides and now we’re getting something to eat.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
