Chicago: The Raven Festival
The Raven Festival was this past weekend. Last year, I thought very favorably of the inaugural event. This year, the organizers must have changed their focus a bit.
This festival is intended as a fundraiser to build a new playground for Chase Park. As such, I think the heavy emphasis on the children’s area and family activities is appropriate.
The Raven, however, doesn’t seem to go far enough. Since the adult section is so overshadowed, I think they should just go all out and make it a children’s festival. Then the gathering may be able to find some focus and cohesion.
Last year, there were two music stages presenting very cool indie bands. This year, the line up switched to more of the usual cover bands. With only a handful of craft booths on hand, there was not much for a grown-up to do except drink and listen to the music.
Personally, cover bands, no matter how talented (and there were some good ones out there), are not going to inspire me to come and stick around just for them alone.
Unfortunately for the fair, the weather did not cooperate this weekend. I don’t know how the turn out was at night, but there were not a lot of non-families there when I was walking around.
For the families who did come though, the fair had a lot to offer. There were giant inflatable Chuck E. Cheese type structures for the kids to run through. The children could get their face painted, wield a balloon sword, play with clay, and visit the petting zoo.
Here’s our dog Thunder meeting some baby cows. He was born on a farm so I’m not sure what he was thinking. The animals in the pen wanted to sniff him too so I think he had a good time.
From what I observed, the kids didn’t care at all about the cooler temperatures and the light drizzle.
The kids stage may have been the more interesting one of the day. The American Indian Center did a presentation that I really appreciated. Here’s a local asset bringing something unique to the neighborhood event.
This is the opportunity that the organizers seem to be missing. They could put together a really special Chicago children’s festival. There are tons of talented artists in the Ravenswood corridor. Lillstreet is just down the road. And check out these puppeteers.
Local business like Arcadia Knitting, which is right across the street from the park, seem to be good ones to head up an activity or demonstration booth.
A new playground is to benefit the local community. Why not let the local community pitch in? It would probably cost less overall and be far more interesting.