Deborah Landman of Plainfield has made a habit of visiting Yorkville in July for the last 20 years and this past weekend was no exception.
“Seriously, I’ve been coming to this city for 20 years and always enjoy the festivals they have here,” she said Saturday at the annual Yorkville River Fest at Riverfront Park in the city. “The kids get to play in the playground, go to the ice cream and the barbecue place … and then we walk around the river. I absolutely feel there’s something here for everyone, every age. We’re going to stay here as long as the kids are feeling it.”
Normally a Friday night and all-day Saturday event, organizers elected to offer a Saturday-only River Fest this year due to a string of issues related to bad weather that have forced cancellations in the past few years.
Superintendent of recreation for the Yorkville Parks and Recreation Department Shay Remus said the normal two-day schedule had been put in place previously over the past several years to allow for a possibility of a rainout “but we decided to put our full force into one day and allow everyone to come and just enjoy everything for the day.”
“We’ve got three amazing bands in our lineup which are just fabulous as well as all the family activities,” she said before the event. “We did condense it, but we did decide to just have this for one day.”
River Fest has been held for more than a decade and “continues to mold into different things as we try to keep it exciting for the community,” Remus said.
The event opened at 11 a.m., with this year’s fest featuring a new family activity that organizers called “Barbie Land” where visitors could “create a persona of Barbie and take pictures in Barbie boxes.”
“We try with our family activities to do something different and new that you don’t see in other communities,” Remus said before the event. “We are doing a life-size interactive arcade for kids to come and play all sorts of classic arcade games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, but really what they are is a variety of bounce houses and obstacle courses and activities that were branded into arcade games. Kids can collect tickets and then redeem them for prizes at our arcade store like you’d find in other arcades.”
For adults, a pink-colored Barbie drink was available as well as a non-alcoholic pink-colored drink for those under 21 years old. A craft beer tasting offering six options was also available this year.
Food was provided by the Knights of Columbus featuring pulled-pork sandwiches as well as various food trucks including barbecue, pizza, fries and ice cream options.
Brandon Martin of Yorkville brought his son Max, who is nearly a year old, and said this was his first visit to the festival.
“We just moved here recently and so far, I really like this,” he said. “The parking is easy and there’s plenty for the kids to do. For me, I like the beer tent and the food, but I like that the kids can just run around and we don’t have to stay right next to them. There’s a wide-open area and they’re safe and we can have some time to enjoy things.”
Jose Lujano of Yorkville said this was about the third time he has visited the festival and brought two of his daughters with him.
“My younger daughter is 7 and my older old one is about to be 12, and they are enjoying it,” he said.
Melissa Portillo of Yorkville brought her daughter Audrina, 13, to the festival.
“The kids are begging for lunch and we’ll see if we eat here. Having a hometown festival is amazing. I love that they get everyone together,” she said.
Audrina admitted she wasn’t sold originally on the idea of coming along with her mom to the fest but after spending a little time by the river she changed her mind.
“I’m going to play some of the games and walk around,” she said. “Actually, this is pretty fun.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
