Things to love about Midsommarfest 2012: Local food vendors

Midsommarfest has always been a place where you can enjoy a great selection of food from Andersonville's favorite restaurants: Calo's pizza, Andie's pitas and hummus, and Hamburger Mary's mini burgers and fried mac n' cheese. This year, we're stepping up our game to bring you even MORE local food vendors with a variety of delicious offerings. You'll want to spend the whole weekend sampling everything on the venue!

Here are some of the great local food vendors, with a taste of what they will be serving :

• Andies Restaurant - Mediterranean and Greek food
• Beat Kitchen - Pizza & empanadas
• Calo Restaurant - several types of pizza
• First Slice Pie Cafe - PIE!, flavored iced teas, and root beer floats
• Hamburger Mary's - mini burgers, fried cheese curds, mac & cheese fritters, and fried pickles
• Homemade Pizza Co. - pizza (but this time, you DON"T have to cook it yourself!)
• Jerry's Sandwiches - Blackened chicken, white cheddar, and chipotle mango chutney sandwich
• Jin Thai (winner of a Michelin Bib Gourmand award!) - Pad thai with chicken or tofu, crab rangoons
• Noodle Zone - egg rolls, fried rice, and Asian food
• Reza's Restaurant - hummus, falafel, eggplant steak, and Persian salad

Other food vendors:

• Chris and Gary's - hot dogs, nachos, and other carnival food
• Dumpling House - pierogies
• El Campeon - pina colada,churros
• Genoa Italian - Italian sausage, brats, corn dogs, mozzarella sticks
• Georgie's Greek Tasty Food - gyros, Greek sausage, and kabobs
• Lee Concessions - Grilled chicken kabobs, orange chicken, lemonade
• Nicholas Quality Meats - kabobs, gyros, BBQ pork, lamb
• Paciugo - gelato
• The Strawberry Patch - chocolate-covered strawberries, and other chocolate-dipped delicacies
• That's So Corny - roasted corn

Things to love about Midsommarfest 2012: Celebrating our Swedishness

Today we're talking about celebrating the reason Midsommarfest has such a funny spelling: Andersonville's Swedish heritage.

In Sweden, Midsommarafton and Midsommardagen (Midsommer's Eve and Midsummer's Day-usually celebrated on the Friday and Saturday between June 19 and June 26), is one of the most important holidays of the year. It celebrates the summer solstice with a maypole dance, traditional music, and (of course) lots of drinking (visit Wikipedia to learn more about how Swedes celebrate this holiday). 

To honor Andersonville's Swedish heritage (read more about it here), we keep the original Swedish spelling of Midsommarfest and feature Swedish performers on one of our stages to give you a feel for what a Swedish Midsommarfest is like.

We even kick things off with a traditional maypole dance that you can participate in!
 

Swedish Stage (Clark & Foster)
Sponsored by the Swedish American Museum 
SATURDAY, JUNE 9

11:45 AM   Traditional Maypole Dance

12:15 PM   Swedish American Children’s Choir

12:40 PM   Merula Swedish Choir

1:05 PM     Chicago Spelmanslag

1:25 PM     Nordic Folkdancers

SUNDAY, JUNE 10
12:00 PM   Nordland Band

Andersonville's cultural institution, the Swedish American Museum, is also open during Midsommarfest (11am-4pm Saturday and Sunday) and offering FREE admission the whole weekend! Check out their permanent exhibit about Swedish immigration to Chicago. Kids of all ages will enjoy the Brunk Children's Museum of Immigration, located on the third floor, which features interactive, hands-on exhibits where they can dress up and experience immigration firsthand.

The Swedish American Museum will also have a tent outside of the museum (near Clark and Foster) with FREE children's crafts (make your own paper Midsommar crown!) as well as Swedish goods on sale from the Museum's gift shop. Swedish food purveyors, and former neighborhood favorites, Wikstrom's Delicatessen will also be in the tent selling delicious Swedish imports.

With all of these activities going on at Midsommarfest, we can all be Swedish for the weekend!

Things to love about Midsommarfest 2012: Family Fun Area

Everyone knows that Midsommarfest is a great place to have a cold beer and listen to great music, but there is also LOTS for families with kids to do during the day, thanks to the Family Fun Area, sponsored by Alamo Shoes. This year, the Family Fun Area will feature:

• A climbing wall
• A 22' inflatable slide
• The Chicago Bicycling Ambassadors
• Crafts and theatre games with Dream Big Performing Arts Workshop
• Face painting with College Nannies & Tutors 
• SATURDAY: Crafts and games with an international flair exploring other cultures with Little Linguists Academy
• SUNDAY: Family games with Sharp As A Tack 

As always, ALL activities in the Family Fun Area are FREE! And, don't forget, admission to the festival for kids 12 and under is also FREE.

In addition to the Family Fun Area, the Summerdale Stage (at Clark and Summerdale) features a great line-up of entertainment that kids of all ages are sure to love!

SATURDAY, JUNE 9

12:00 PM   Pet Parade, sponsored by Ruff N' Stuff (stop by store to enter!)

1:00 PM     Bubbles Academy

2:00 PM     Dream Big Performing Arts

2:30 PM     Little Linguists Academy

3:00 PM     L’il Buds Theatre Company

4:00 PM     Gus Giordano Dance School

5:00 PM     The Revelettes - Chicago's grooviest go-go gals

Dream Tree Shakers

SUNDAY, JUNE 10 

12:00 PM   Andersonville Suzuki Academy

1:00 PM     Trowbridge Guitar Studio

2:00 PM     Toys Et Cetera Kids Talent Show (sign up at Toys Et Cetera!)

3:00 PM     Dream Big Performing Arts

3:30 PM     Design Dance

4:00 PM     The Old Town School of Folk Music presents: Dream Tree Shakers

AND, that's not all!

The Swedish American Museum & Brunk Children's Museum of Immigration will also be offering FREE admission during Midsommarfest weekend (Saturday & Sunday, 11:00am-4:00pm), as well as children's activities in front of the museum during the day.

So, round up the kiddos, rev up the strollers, and ready the backpacks and sunscreen for 2 days of family fun at Midsommarfest!

Things to love about Midsommarfst 2012: Friday night

Just when you thought Midsommarfest couldn't get any bigger - we decided to open the festival a day early by having an Opening Night Celebration from 5-10pm on Friday, June 8! It will feature a special performance by 16 Candles (7:00pm), as well as some of your favorite food and arts & crafts vendors from the upcoming weekend - and, of course, cold beer and sangria. The celebration will be held on Clark Street from Balmoral to Catalpa.

We are asking a $5 suggested donation for the event, with proceeds going to the Andersonville Development Corporation.

While Midsommarfest has always supported the work the Chamber does for the Andersonville business district, for the first time we will partner with the Andersonville Development Corporation (ADC) to raise funds to support their ongoing sustainable community and economic development initiatives. This includes continuing to provide technical assistance, consumer surveying and outreach, business advocacy, retail attraction and retention and eco-Andersonville programming for the benefit of all Andersonville businesses and residents.  

Recently, ADC launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $5600 to put in the first ‘parklet’* in Chicago on Clark Street in Andersonville.  The response was incredible and as of two days before the campaign’s end they had raised $6398. You should be seeing the results of their efforts along Clark Street by July! Also, check out Green Week, eco-Andersonville's week-long celebration of neighborhood sustainability, happening July 9-15.

So, start your Midsommarfest weekend early by coming out to have fun and support the exciting things happening in Andersonville!

*A parklet is a small urban park created by replacing on-street parking spaces with a patio, planters, trees, public seating & bicycle parking. Parklets provide a public place for people to escape the hectic pace and clutter of city sidewalks and streets and enjoy the atmosphere of the city around them.

Things to love about Midsommarfest 2012: Get a free beer for shopping local

Have you had your eye on that cute shirt for a while? Are you thinking about booking a massage to relieve some stress? Midsommarfest 2012 is the perfect time to treat yourself!

If you SPEND $30 at any locally-owned Andersonville retail location or service provider (from a haircut to dry cleaning to dog grooming and more!) during Midsommarfest weekend (June 8, 9, & 10), bring your receipt to the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce booth and get a coupon for a FREE BEER during the festival.

With this new program, you can help support the businesses in the neighborhood that are sometimes overlooked during the festival (c'mon...we KNOW you patronize the bars and restaurants). So, go ahead and check out that new shop that you've seen on the street, FINALLY take that bag of clothes to the dry cleaner, or get your dog (or yourself) looking pretty for strolling through the festival!


The small print: Valid for purchases of at least $30 Friday, June 8 - Sunday, June 10. Store or service provider must be locally-owned and located in the Andersonville retail district (Ainslie-Victoria, Magnolia-Ravenswood). Purchases at bars, restaurants and outdoor Midsommarfest vendors are excluded from this promotion. One beer coupon per person. The Chamber booth is located at Clark and Rascher on June 8 and at Clark & Berwyn on June 9 & 10. You must be 21 years of age or older with a valid photo ID to receive this promotion.