Temperatures nearing 90 degrees caused many people to use misting tents and raised fans set along sidewalks to cool off those at the annual three-day Historic Downtown Long Grove Strawberry Fest over the weekend.
Chadd Wickert, lead singer with Of Perception — A Doors Tribute band, took a moment to rest and lie down on a raised surface in front of the main stage while performing, causing fans to ask if the singer was okay. Minutes before, Wickert was jumping around the stage.
Wickert was fine, and spectators loved the dramatic moment.
“Listen, I’m like, ‘He better not fall; He better not hurt himself,’” said the singer’s wife Carmen, who handed him a bottle of water in the heat of the moment. “I’m like, ‘Don’t crack your hip, dude’ I mean, we’re not 20 anymore.”
She added that Long Grove, “is a great freakin’ venue, are you kidding me? And it’s in our backyard.”
Fans were extended their arms while Chadd Wickert channeled his inner Jim Morrison. Some audience members got up from the folding chairs they brought, swaying to the hit music of their younger days.
The main stage was set in front of the controversial covered bridge on Robert Parker Coffin Road which temporarily blocked the span off to vehicular traffic.
Recently, the iconic bridge was hit again by vehicles taller than the bridge’s limit. Clear height restrictions are posted along the bridge at 8-foot-6. Since the covered bridge’s reopening in August of 2020, the rebuilt structure has gained notoriety for being damaged dozens of times by vehicles driven by motorists who either ignored, or failed to heed, the maximum-height warning.
“It’s unfortunate, but we know how to handle it,” said Ryan Messner, Long Grove insurance business owner and president of the Historic Downtown Long Grove Business Association.
Long Grove is known for annual festivals featuring themes such as hot cocoa, strawberries, chocolate and apples. Long Grove’s three-day Apple Fest, scheduled for Sept. 20, is Long Grove’s biggest fest, Messner said.
Strawberry Fest 2024 drew approximately 25,000, organizers said.
Messner said village visitors, “come back in time. You get to enjoy being a child as an adult … not worried about the day-to-day.”
On the midway, strawberries were abundant in forms such as in beverages and skewered with chocolate.
Accompanied by his father, Nathan Czarnik, 10, of Hawthorn Woods, said with a smile he liked his strawberries, “just plain.”
Sharing a strawberry skewer, a cheesecake slice and a banana, all three dipped in chocolate, was the Filippov family of Long Grove.
Parents Vlad and Anna Filippov brought their 7-year-old twins Max and Eva.
“We go to all of them,” Anna Filippov said of Long Grove’s frequent festivals. “It’s a lot of fun. I think they’ll remember it as they grow in Long Grove,” she said of the twins.
