Festival to celebrate multicultural love for horses

Do you think all cowboys and cavalry soldiers of the Old West were white men?

The Buffalo Soldiers U.S. Cavalry re-enactors, scheduled to appear at the Festival of the Horse and Drum in St. Charles Aug. 15-16, will set you straight. So too will the representatives manning the Black Cowboy Museum display.

Horses and riders from various cultural settings - including Polish Arabian horses, Mexican team riders competing in ranching skills, and Spanish horses - will showcase the international appeal of horses during the upcoming event. An escaramuza team - women in 19th-century Mexican costume riding sidesaddle - will compete in a choreographed skirmish.

There will be a jousting competition, a dressage contest, pony rides, presentations on horse health, talks about riders' biomechanics, demonstrations of cowboy horsemanship and more. You also can see miniature Gypsy horses and visit with a bull.

There will be music, including a performance by a former rodeo rider-turned-Chicago cop from the South Side, plus belly-dancing and country line dancing.

And there will be themed villages, including the Muchacha Salsa Village. One of the highlights in that village is a salsa-dancing contest Aug. 15.

Others include a Renaissance Village, Steampunk Alley, Cowboy Town, an American Indian area and a warhorse re-enactment camp.

The festival is from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16, at the Kane County Fairgrounds, 525 S. Randall Road. One-day admission is $15 for adults, $7 for youths ages 6 to 15, and free for children 5 and younger. A two-day pass is $28 for adults, $12 for youths.

Tickets will be sold at the door. They may also be purchased in advance by visiting festivalofthehorseanddrum.com.