Ribfest has great food, good drinking, good music and probably the best kids section of the outdoor festivals in Chicago.  Ribfest is on Lincoln Avenue from Irving Park Road to Berteau and is open Friday from 5-10, and Saturday and Sunday from 12-10.  The Kids Square is open from 12-5 on Saturday and Sunday.  The festival has a suggested donation of $5 and the kids area and the music is worth quadruple the price of admission.  We go every year and it is hard to get your kid to leave.

Just about right in the middle of the festival, you’ll find the kids area.  It is right across the street from the CVS parking lot.  The area highlights are typically the major bouncing activities including an obstacle course, standard bouncie (I think it was Curious George last year), and a maze.  Right in front of the bounce area is usually a miniature golf course.

In front of the bounce area there is typically several booths set up with some kids activities. Several carnival games will be set up where they can win stuffed animals, blow up guitars and the standard prizes that don’t cost near as much as you paid until your kids won something.  Nature’s Creatures will have their exhibit with turtles, snakes, and birds for a little close up one one experience for the kids from 12-5 on Saturday and Sunday.

Finally, there is a stage set up for a ton of kids entertainment.  Here is a list of the highlights:

* Child’s Play Touring Theatre is doing a kid’s comedy show on Sunday at 1:30-2:30.

* Merry Music Makers will do a sing-a-long on Saturday and Sunday at 4:30.

* Super Stolie and Rock Star Tommy will perform a ukulele/guitar show on Saturday from 2:15-3:00.

*  Nature’s Creatures will show off some of their animals in their interactive show on Sunday at 3:30

So grab some barbecque, grab a drink and let your kids go ballistic in the kids area at one of the first and best festivals for kids during the summer.  There is some pretty good music entertainment for adults to with The Ike Reilly Assassination (9:00) and Robbie Fulks (7:45) on Friday, Bottle Rockets at 9:00 on Saturday, and Sunday has Whigs at 9:00.

 Larry and Donna

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 at 9:36 pm and is filed under Events. If you use RSS, you can subscribe to the RSS feed. , or if you would rather receive an e-mail, please subscribe to the e-mail in the lower right hand corner of this page. Both comments and pings are currently closed.