Wonder Works Children’s Museum dropped ticket prices for the third annual Bubble Works event and that drew more people to the outdoor festival in Oak Park.
Vanessa Druckman, marketing and communications manager of Wonder Works told Pioneer Press that fees of $15 for nonmembers and $5 for members helped to attract more than 1,000 attendees and the largest attendance for Bubble Works.
“Our mission is to serve play-based opportunities to as many children as possible so we felt that we really needed to take a look at our prices and we radically decreased them,” she said.
According to Druckman, prices for Bubble Works 2023, which approximately 650 people attended, were $30 for nonmembers and $15 for members.
“It was a big change. We felt great about being able to do it because we just want more children to be able to play,” she said.
Druckman noted that another change to the two-day Bubble Works was the addition of food trucks with the Boba Truck on July 13 and the Spoke Cafe cart on July 14.
“Spoke is an incredible business. It’s the creation of a young high school entrepreneur named Alec Olson. He’s a rising junior. He’s just this great kid. He comes and he brews his own cold brew. He also does root beer floats,” she said about the Oak Park and River Forest High School student.
One constant at Bubble Works has been Glowby the Bubbler, who did four performances each day. “He is also an inventor of bubble nets and bubble wands and does a lot of scientific things about the type of bubbles. This year he was demonstrating this new invention, which was a bubble snowthrower
that he was swinging around his head and essentially creating snowflakes,” Druckman said.
Bubble Works featured a large pit, which Druckman explained was 15 feet by 15 feet and filled with foam staffers could control to go as high as children’s shoulders.
“We also had a large bubble playground with these large trays filled with bubble solution. We had huge bubble wands and small bubble wands and all kinds of different things that you can experiment with to make bubbles and run around,” she said.
According to Druckman, Bubble Works included a large tent with science, technology, engineering and mathematics – or STEM – activities.
“Bubbles are a universally loved activity that also provides an opportunity (for) STEM concepts and to have children experience and test different things while being delighted by bubbles in all shapes and sizes and even different smells. It’s a beautiful and universal mechanism that speaks to all ages,” she
said.
Druckman added that creative play at Bubble Works included using cut-up pool noodles and cheesecloth to make bubble beards and a building station for making three-dimensional bubbles in shapes such as hexagons and squares.
“We let children mix their own custom scented and colored bubble solution that we then sealed so they could take it home. We also let them make bejeweled bubble wands with these beautiful beads. A lot of them ended up making bracelets also,” she said.
Druckman noted that Bubble Works, which brought in attendees from Chicago and Indiana, is well-suited for outdoor play.
“It just enables us to make Wonder Works Children’s Museum a little bit bigger. Especially with bubbles, it lets us get very messy. Something we’re very passionate about at the museum is giving children permission to play however they want,” she said.
Led by executive director Rachel Weber, the museum offers several memberships including a new
summer membership, which began June 1 and continues to Sept. 1.
“Membership is such a wonderful offering because our base membership gives you 365 days of play. We also do member events. We do these special member parties once a quarter,” Druckman said.
According to Druckman, officials are thrilled that the nonprofit Wonder Works was selected as a beneficiary of Bonnie Brae’s 9/11 LemonAid charity lemonade stand and will bring the museum’s foam pit to the annual fundraiser on Sept. 11 in River Forest.
She noted that Wonder Works’ other annual outdoor festival, Wonder Wheels, returns from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 12 and 13 with a major children’s performer for the first time.
Jessi Virtusio is a freelancer.
