This huge Experimental Aircraft Association festival includes air shows, fireworks, big-name concerts, children's activities, workshops, exhibits and rides in historic aircraft.
Reserve lodgings early; it fills rooms within a 60-mile radius.
You can't see this kind of thing just anywhere: cut-throat log rolling, boom running, springboard chopping and speed climbing.
This big music festival features dozens of bands and, unlike other Grant Park festivals, is not free. Reserve rooms far in advance.
Professional musicians, many of them world-famous, offer free classical concerts in Millennium Park's beautiful Pritzker Pavilion.
This year, seating is at 25 percent capacity and still is free but must be reserved. Tickets will be available at 10 a.m. Mondays before the event.
There's nightly entertainment on the waterfront, a downtown carnival, tours of Coast Guard cutters, a Grand Parade and fireworks.
This giant hot-air balloon festival includes daily flights, rides for the public, music, night glows and closing fireworks.
This festival at the Naper Settlement is a showcase for Italian culture, food, music and artisans and has two entertainment stages.
The heritage festival at McKee Farms Park in this Madison suburb features such things as folk dancing, a puppet show, a pasta-eating contest and vintage baseball as well as bocce ball.
This Mississippi River festival on historic St. Feriole Island features 12 bands on two stages, with onsite camping.
This Mississippi River town celebrates with a pedal tractor pull, duck derby, firemen's water fight and parade.
This music festival is held downtown.
There are chainsaw artists and alligator shows as well as a carnival and grandstand acts that include national country musicians. Headliners include Locash, Keith Urban, Old Dominion and Pitbull.