The Rotary Club raises the curtain on GroveFest this evening, culminating three months of frantic effort in an attempt to provide Downers Grove with a summer festival.
The 45-member club has been scrambling to put the smaller, more local festival together, with some members working as many as 30 hours a week on the endeavor, said Keith Hoffman of Rotary.
The club took on the gargantuan effort this spring following the Village Council’s decision to eliminate Heritage Fest due to budget concerns.
With opening set for 6 p.m. tonight, all systems are go and on budget, Hoffman said. “Certain areas are under budget, certain areas are a little over. We should be coming in very close to budget.”
The club decided to add another police officer for restaurant security, he said. “The Fraternal Order of Police is doing it at a discounted rate.”
Others also have pitched in to make the event happen. Jim Provenzale from Fast Forward Design developed the website, flyers, posters and pamphlets, Hoffman said.
The club also was successful in attracting volunteers. “It’s been great,” he said, adding that Mayor Ron Sandack and commissioners Bob Barnett, Marilyn Schnell and Geoff Neustadt are among those who stepped forward. Some teen groups, such as the Kyle Braid Leadership group, also are pitching in.
Local restaurants, entertainers and not-for-profits also are participating.
The Rotary is already looking forward to continuing the event next year, following an evaluation of the event’s financial feasibility. “We’re hoping to raise money. It’s a costly thing to put together and we need it to be successful,” Hoffman said.
Now it all depends on the residents, who clamored for a summer festival by the thousands after Heritage Fest was cut. The Rotary is putting a lot of police and fire personnel on the streets, as required by the village. “We have worked with the village to determine how many we need,” Hoffman said.
And in addition to the crowds, the club is hoping for great weather, Hoffman said. “It should be warm for the weekend, which means a lot of not-for-profits will be selling lots of water and pop.”
UPDATE:
Rotary's Keith Hoffman.
Friday went well. Kieth Hoffman and the Rotary folks were smiling. The biggest beef was how come I can’t take a second beer back to the table for the spouse/girlfriend/whatever. Come on out Saturday and Sunday!
The area steadily filled up throughout the day. No problems reported by police. No drunks.
The bands were better than expected,
Beer tent volunteers.
although it was somewhat disturbing Mayor Sandack could name not one but two Judas Priest hits…(/kidding).
Check back here to discuss the first annual GroveFest on Monday.
We went last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. The kids got on the rides multiple times well worth the $20 wristband cost. The crowds (lots of the youth of DG) seemed well behaved and having fun being together. Thank you Rotary Club for undertaking this large task to bring a fest back to DG>
Bravo Rotary Club! Thank you
Great event, if I had a nit it was the lack of activities/rides for the 5 and under set. Because we had the kids with us we couldn’t stay long without keeping them entertained. Somehow, the thought of my 3 year old running around in the beer garden while Mom and Dad tossed back the Bud was just a little depressing. Still, well organized and well run, the Rotary should feel proud.
So much for posting broken promises, I was 20 meters away and the company I was with said no to carnival. I am thankful the weather was nice today in Downers. At least I got to hear the sound of good Downers fun and I don’t care what anyone says; I think the sun shines best in Downers.
Considering the time they had to plan and execute this, I think they did astoundingly well.
With more time and planning, it will only get better.
I get the part where this fest was put together rather quickly by fest standards, but aside from the nice array of local restaurants represented and a few good public service booths… there wasn’t much to this fest. The music that we did get to hear was ok, but being just a regular working stiff, I couldn’t afford much more than a walk thru in the middle of the day. If we were to have come down with a couple of kids in the evening it would have cost us close to $100! The rides were outrageously priced, I think, with the cheapest ride costing $2.50! Any ride that an adult could go on was $5.00 or more. And to feed 4 people something substantial would have been over $50.00. I realize that the Rotary needs to make money in order to keep doing the great work they do, but really…. over priced by alot! And I agree with the comment about only being able to buy one “adult beverage” at a time.. so what is the choice.. 3 or 4 trips or leave the kids unattended while mom and dad get a beer!
I’m truly hoping that if they do this again next year, there are more booths than the 7 or 8 we saw (a couple of which are VERY worthwhile causes) or perhaps even throw in a craft show of some sort. Otherwise.. if it’s like this year.. we won’t be back.
Nice Job Rotary. 1st annual Grove Fest seemed to be a success. Would like to see more DG restaurants With more time to plan next year, maybe, advertising, marketing of this event. 2 stages 1 for kids acts the other for adult or contempory acts, kids area, overall for such short timeline to put it together they did great.
We came out to see Elevation on Sunday night, and they were amazing as usual. Yes, the beer was overpriced (although we would have paid $5 for a Goose Island…) but that is typical of a summer festival.
I think everyone who wanted a “smaller” Heritage Fest needs to remember that this is exactly what we got. This is what a “smaller” Heritage Fest would look like. As for marketing, more marketing would bring more people — and isn’t that what we all said we did NOT want?
I say congrats to the Rotary for pulling a great neighborhood festival together so quickly. The group seemed to really listen to what DG residents wanted and gave it to them. Of course, sometimes what we SAY we want and what we REALLY want are two different things…
I understand that it was not intended to be compared to Heritage Fest, but I”m sorry… the Grove Fest did nothing for me. It took us a total of 10 minutes to walk through the entire thing. It was really lacking anything interesting. At least Heritage Fest had alot of public service booths to occupy your mind. We saw about 6 when we went on Saturday morning and less on Sunday. The ones that WERE there were for VERY worthwhile causes, ie: Sgt. Tommy’s Kids… but other than that..it was a place to take the kids on a weekend and drop an exorbitant amount of cash. We won’t go back next year.
Lifer, sorry you didn’t like the fest. Given the time to pull it off, I think the Rotary did a great job. Let them know what they could do to improve it next year. My complaint is that I’m a cup half-full guy. In past years, we volunteers were allowed to imbibe while we served beer. This year the Rotary said no drinking while pouring so I settled on being discrete. Other complaints I heard concerned the $5 cover after 6pm and having all the food vendors (carny food was the exception) inside the beer garden. Also, some people might think $5 is a lot for a beer but it really isn’t if you check out what the Rotary is all about. We had people tossing money in the tip jar just because they knew it was for the Rotary. Oh, I did complain to my wife that I kind of missed the mullet crowd but as soon as the words were out of my mouth, a classic Billy Ray stood next to us and made my weekend complete.
wow…Billy Ray himself doesn’t even sport a mullet anymore!
I was too busy to attend, but what tends to draw me to a festival is the prospect of seeing good (somewhat recognizeable) musical acts – even if past their commercial prime – close to home. So I’m not sure if I would have gone anyway.
Thought it was a good fest, but it could have been great had they allowed the art fair – I was also disappointed to see very few local restaurants but a number of Bojo booths instead. I would love to see a Taste of Downers Grove style restaurant row, rahter than Bojo.
I’m not saying there wasn’t a good effort by the Rotary.. they didn’t have much time to put it together and I will try it one more time, next year… but they will have to have something more than a few food booths, beer and over priced carnival rides to make me a fan… Sorry, it just fell short….