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Community Corner

Fall Fest Organizers Ready To Draw Back Curtain

Months of planning and bringing sponsors on board is about to pay off.

As you might expect, much planning and preparation goes into the annual Huntley Fall Fest, now entering its sixth year. Even so, there are some oddities that organizers don’t plan for and some they do — like how to respond to a tropical storm hovering over your event.

“In 2008, Hurricane Ike basically parked itself over Huntley for two or three days and flooded the fest grounds,” Fall Fest Chairman Bryant Haniszewski said. Ike made landfall in Texas and was downgraded to a tropical storm as it pushed north toward the Midwest and finally into Canada.

“We had to recover from that year," Haniszewski said. "It was a rough one. The car show turned into a boat show.”

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Locally, the storm dumped a single-day record rainfall (6.64 inches) at O’Hare International Airport, a mark that stood until July when 6.86 inches of rain fell. Strangely enough, both record-setting events occurred on a Saturday.

Haniszewski, who has been involved with fest planning since its first year and has served as chairman for the last two, said organizers are prepared for rain on any day of the fest, which will be held Friday through Sunday, Sept. 23-25, in both and .

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“We’re always watching the weather,” Haniszewski said. “After 2008, I think we watch it a lot more. But rain is a dirty word. I don’t mind the cold. We’ll have sweatshirts for people to buy and put on, but rain keeps people away, so we don’t like that.”

And this year there will be much to like at the fest. In addition to a pumpkin patch, a craft show, food and drink, and live bands, organizers had added and a scarecrow-building contest, with participation and the materials to build a scarecrow both free.

“When people come in, they’ll be given a paper ballot so they can vote for their favorite (scarecrow) and then turn it in. At the end of the fest on Sunday, we’ll announce the winners,” Haniszewski said.

Also a first at this year’s fest: pumpkin bowling, although Haniszewski admits they’re still uncertain about what to use for the bowling pins.

“I suppose it will depend on the weather,” he said. “If we use the plastic ones they may blow over, so we’ll have to come up with an idea of how to work it. But I think it’ll be a hit.”

Missing for this year’s lineup is the car show.

“When they finish that Route 47 construction, we’ll bring back the car show,” Haniszewski said.

Nixing the car show is just one of the many decisions made over the course of the year by the festival’s planning committee, which is composed of nearly 30 liaisons from such participating groups as the Knights of Columbus, the Sun City Lions, the Huntley Lions, the Huntley Jaycees and the .

“Each group has its own task down pretty well by now,” said Haniszewski, a Huntley resident whose wife, Carly, also volunteers. “We’ve tweaked things here and there to make it work better, but I think everybody works on their own really well. We have liaisons from each organization, and they’re on the (planning) committee and they go back and work with their group. It works really well that way. And it helps keep only one hand in the pie.”

In addition to the planning committee, there’s a board.

“We have a board of about five people that kind of make the voting decisions for what happens,” Haniszewski said. “But the committee gets together, and we work throughout the year, starting in January or February, and we go over new ideas or talk about what we can do differently. What worked, what didn’t work. And we just talk about having fun at the fest.”

Of course, sponsors make much of the festival possible, a feat that Haniszewski says the planning committee continues to achieve via a variety of methods, including networking and “knocking on doors.”

“It’s difficult. You have to entice (sponsors) to spend money when we’re all clamping down,” he said. “We, as a fest, have to give them something that makes them want to come out and commit to two or three days. It’s not as easy as it used to be. You know, the building companies don’t have the money that they used to. We’re lucky they’re even in business.”

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