Saturday, June 8, 2013

My Favorite Street Fest: Midsommarfest in Andersonville


Summer is kind of sort of starting to pick up here in Chicago, and for us that means it was time for our annual adventure to one of our favorite street festivals in one of our favorite neighborhoods in this city. We spent the better part of today in Andersonville to celebrate Midsommarfest. I’m a big fan of Andersonville because of the diversity, the family friendly atmosphere and the great worldly eateries in the area. And Midsommarfest brings together all of these things together to make for a wonderful weekend event.

As a tip for those of you in the Chicago area, we found a way to circumvent the $10 a person admission fee in the last few years. Gates formally open for the street fest at 11:00 am, so we arrive in the neighborhood roughly an hour before hand and enjoy brunch at Svea, one of my favorite Scandinavian spots in the city. I’m particularly keen on the Viking breakfast, which comes with two eggs of my choice (sunny side up J), Swedish sausage, fried potatoes and Swedish pancakes with lingonberries. YUM!

Between my wife and I, with tip, our total breakfast bill came out to $26. So we bypassed paying the fest fee entrance and got an excellent breakfast at an affordable price, especially compared to the usual marked up street fest food choices. From there we gather with the crowd to take in some May pole dancing at Clark and Foster and enjoy the rest of the festival.

There’s excellent music – Chicago Samba in particular was my wife’s favorite -, great people watching, and on this particular Saturday an excellent chance to enjoy what has been a much belated showing of great weather in Chicago. While I’m not one to make impulse purchases and buy much of anything at street fests, it was nice to start getting some ideas for Father’s day which is right around the corner and see some of the latest trends that are starting to hit the street. One of which, which my wife predicted some time ago, is that local artists are starting to diversify their pieces of art from wall hangings onto coasters. Another, which we both are not particularly keen on, are the awful motel 6 curtains that women in Chicago are wearing as dresses. I know this isn't a fashion blog, but they're awful, just awful.

So from Chicago, happy belated summer to everyone out there!

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