Lake Forest Prepares For 'Blowout' Heritage Festival on Saturday

Nearly a year of events marking the 150th anniversary of Lake Forest’s founding will culminate this weekend with a huge bang at Saturday’s highly anticipated Heritage Festival.

“This is really the big blowout of the 150th celebration,” said Susan Banks, executive assistant and communications manager for the city of .

Excitement has been building about this weekend’s events since Lake Forest officially kicked off its sesquicentennial celebration at .

However, the planning of the 150th celebration has been in the works for nearly two years, when the Lake Forest 150th Committee was formed with the purpose of making it a true community celebration.

“They really wanted it to be a community-embraced event that had a lot of variety to it,” said Debbie Saran, a member of the 150th committee.

Head to Market Square

Heritage Festival will take place in and around and is intended to have activities that every member of the community can enjoy.

The event kicks off at 2 p.m. with an ice cream social in Market Square, where festival-goers can enjoy homemade ice cream provided by Capannari’s, while listening to the performance of a strolling barbershop quartet.

From 3:30 to 5:45 p.m., the focus will shift slightly west toward the performance stage behind , where alum, and Grammy Award-winning jazz musician Clark Sommers will perform.

Sommers will be the first of three notable artists performing at Heritage Festival on Saturday.

Most recently, it was announced that the Ronnie Baker Brooks Blues Band, a popular Chicago-based group best known for performing at Buddy Guy’s Legends Blues Club, will grace the stage from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. This last-minute addition to the Heritage Festival musical line up was provided as an anonymous donation to the “blowout” celebration.

Headliner Dave Mason

The Ronnie Baker Blues Band will serve as an opening act to the headlining performance of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician Dave Mason, who will perform with his band from 7:30 to 10 p.m.

If the weather holds up, big crowds could fill and the planned staging area behind . However, the city will make the concert viewable for everyone with three separate jumbo-tron screens stationed around the downtown area: in , in the Oakwood Avenue parking lot, and in the Forest Avenue parking lot.

“No matter where you are sitting, you will be able to see the show, even if you are not right at the performance stage,” said Saran.

During this time, residents are also encouraged to take part in a Taste of Lake Forest from 4 to 8 p.m., which will feature food, wine, beer and other samples from 11 different food vendors and restaurants around the city.

Participant Southgate Café has even created a special cocktail to commemorate Lake Forest’s 150th celebration.

Post-Concert Show

Everyone is encouraged to bring lawn chairs, blankets and coolers to so they can just sit and the evening’s events.

“We want it to be sort of ‘Ravinia-esque’,” said Saran.

At 10 p.m., Heritage Festival will conclude with a laser and lights show, and a showcasing of historical photos, accompanied by music.

All of Saturday’s events are available to residents free of charge through donations from various Lake Forest residents and businesses.

“The community has really come forth to make sure that this event is not exclusive to those who can afford it,” said Banks.

Where to Park

The city of Lake Forest has marked certain areas of the city as parking areas for fest-goers:

• the Metra station parking lot
• the former municipal services building parking lot on Western Avenue
• and one side of every street all over town.

“We’re also encouraging people to be creative when it comes to parking,” explained Saran, who also suggested parking in Lake Bluff or Fort Sheridan, and taking the train into downtown Lake Forest.

Heritage Festival will take place rain or shine.

“We are really hoping for good weather, but the party will go forward either way,” said Saran.

For more information on Heritage Festival, and other 150th celebration events, visit Lake Forest’s 150th website at www.lf150.com.