Barbara Witte of Elgin and her niece Ashlyn Simon of Batavia elected to visit St. Charles Friday afternoon to enjoy Scarecrow Weekend, a community festival that both say they come to “all the time.”
“I’ve been coming for years and I love all the different scarecrows and activities and just the fun,” Witte said as she and her niece walked through the plaza on First Street. “I’m sort of surprised at the growth of this. It just keeps getting bigger. Seems like it gets bigger because more businesses are getting into it and people in the community itself.”
Halloween decorations, lots of family attractions, food, music and more were on display over the weekend as the St. Charles Business Alliance offered the 39th annual Scarecrow Weekend from Friday through Sunday.
Before the event, organizers said as many as 60,000 people could visit St. Charles during the three-day festival, a number that Jenna Sawicki, executive director of the St. Charles Business Alliance, said represented last year’s total, adding “that’s a good number for us.”
“We took over this event in 2019 as an organization and it has always been a three-day event with us,” Sawicki said before the event’s opening on Friday.
“Our goal is to showcase the city as a whole and who we are as a community,” she said.
Highlights this year included over 120 scarecrows – the “most we’ve had since we took this over,” Sawicki said. The scarecrows were made by a host of groups, businesses, political candidates and not-for-profits in the area.
“We have business and schools and Scout groups and we’re just thrilled that the community continues to get involved in this. It has continued to grow,” she said.
First Street Plaza was one of the showcases of the weekend.
“This is the first time we’ve been able to highlight First Street with its completion this past spring and so we get to utilize the plaza – it’s beautiful and a great community meeting space that will have live music and a photo opportunity down there along with the library that is doing a character meet-and-greet,” Sawicki said before the event. “This will be great way to showcase the businesses there as well, and First Street is in the middle of the footprint of this event.”
Riverside Avenue saw a rock-climbing wall added this year, courtesy of local Boy Scouts, as well as other activities including magicians, pumpkin carving, face painters and balloon artists that were scattered throughout the downtown.
Ashlyn Simon, 14, who attends Batavia High School, said she “wasn’t too old to enjoy the festival,” adding that “it’s fun and I like walking around and seeing all the scarecrows.”
“I’ve been coming for three or four years and, for me, probably one of my favorite things is the games,” she said. “All the free stuff, too.”
Alexa Sonne of West Chicago came with her children and said, “I’ve been coming here for many years every fall.”
“There’s a lot of kids’ activities and I bring my boys and they love it here. There’s a lot to do,” she said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
