OLD-FASHIONED FUN

The 77th edition of the Winnetka Community Nursery School Children’s Fair will take place at Village Green Park on Friday, June 7 and Saturday, June 8. This year’s fair keeps the nostalgic traditions alive but also adds some new ones that might be of keen interest to adults.

For the first time in its history, the fair will be offering canned alcoholic beverages for sale. Towne & Oak Coffee will also have a stand from 10a.m. to 1p.m. on Saturday where fair attendees can fuel up. And local Winnetka gem, La Taquiza will be serving up fare all day Friday. These enhancements only add to the small-town charm that has been integral to the event’s identity for more than seven decades.

“It’s definitely a homegrown event that has been very slow to evolve, and I think that’s kind of what the community loves about it—that parents who grew up going to the fair just really recognize a lot of it when they bring their own children around,” says Molly Murgatroyd, chair of this year’s event. “They have those core memories of the fair—the red and white striped tents and the old-fashioned arcade games—and when they bring their kids, they can expect the same. We love to keep the nostalgia.”

The fair is planned by the Winnetka Community Nursery School Board of Directors and raises funds for the nonprofit school’s operation. As the fair has continued to grow over the decades, planning has become more intricate and time intensive.

“We’re in our 77th year, so it definitely has become more complicated to plan. The fact that we can still pull it off and bring a lot of joy to the community is exciting,” says Murgatroyd. “It’s obviously a big fundraiser for the school but the primary focus is to make sure that it’s a community event and that we’re doing it for the community as well as for the preschool.”

In past years, the fair has generally drawn about 4,000 attendees, but a post-pandemic exuberance raised that number to about 6,000 last year. With that level of attendance, the fair depends heavily on volunteers from the community to pitch in. And they do.

“It takes hundreds of volunteers to run, so we have been sourcing volunteers for months just to make sure that we can get the event to run smoothly,” she explains.

This year’s fair features what you would find at any big city fair. There will be seven different mechanical rides, inflatable jumps, and slides for kids of all ages, along with arcade games, a petting zoo with a camel and other animals, pony rides, balloon artists, and glitter tattoos.

For adults, Friday night will feature “Dad band” the Performance Chinos and the beer tent will be hopping. There will be kids’ entertainers throughout the day on Saturday, including Tunes with Tim at 10:30a.m., as well as a performance by the New Trier Cheerleading Team on Friday at 5:30p.m.

But perhaps the biggest attraction is the nostalgia itself.

“It’s the same now as it was back then. What struck me last year is there would be women walking by who were in their 50s, 60s, and 70s and they would stop us and say, ‘I was the fair chair years ago and it’s always been moms putting the fair up and running the fair and pounding the stakes’,” Murgatroyd says. ”The women who have run the fair in the past make it a point to try to walk by the Village Green and kind of reminisce about the times that they helped plan it.”

Presenting and Platinum Sponsors for this year’s Winnetka Children’s Fair include Airoom; Art Party; BMO Bank–Winnetka; Go Green Winnetka; Great Central Brewing Company; Grosvenor Capital Management; LP Group; North Shore Community Bank; The North Shore Weekend and Sheridan Road; r:home; Ruffolo Landscaping; The Shoreline Group at Morgan Stanley; Village of Winnetka; and Winnetka Community Nursery School.

General entrance to the Winnetka Children’s Fair is free. Ticket for rides and other attractions are on sale now. For more information visit winnetkacommunitynurseryschool.org.