Lombard ready for two weeks of Lilac Time festivities
Lombard residents will be looking at the world through lilac-colored glasses for the next two weeks as the village celebrates Lilac Time with a variety of events leading up to the annual Lilac Parade.
Festivities begin Saturday, May 6, with the Lilac Queen coronation ceremony beginning at 1 p.m. in Lilacia Park, 150 S. Park Ave. At the same time, adults 21 and older can join the Lilac Parade Wine Walk from 1 to 5 p.m., visiting businesses on St. Charles Road and Park Avenue to sample wine, beer and snacks. Participants should check in at Vino Cellar, 141 W. St. Charles Road.
Sunday, May 7, brings the Lilac Time Art and Craft Fair that will feature about 114 vendors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. along St. Charles Road, between Main and Elizabeth streets in downtown.
Vendors from across the region will offer shoppers jewelry, doll clothes, paper products, candles, soaps and garden décor, said Yvonne Invergo, executive director of the Lombard Chamber of Commerce.
The day will include live entertainment on an outdoor stage, a Kid Zone with inflatables and arcade-style games, and plenty of food from local restaurants and eight vendors.
Admission is free.
Invergo said the chamber also is sponsoring the Lilac Ball Friday, May 12, at The Carlisle, 435 E. Butterfield Road. The black-tie optional evening will include dinner, dancing, a raffle and a silent auction. Reservations are required; tickets are $85.
The Lombard Garden Club and park district, meanwhile, will offer gardeners a chance to stock up on lilacs with the plant and bush sale.
The sale opens from 3 to 7 p.m. Thursday, May 11, and continues from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, May 12. If supplies last, it will resume at 8 a.m. Saturday, May 13.
"The first day is super busy. Usually by Friday afternoon we're sold out," said Meri Niehaus, park district program manager. "We also sell a variety of perennials as well."
"We have 17 cultivars, 17 different varieties of lilacs in a variety of colors," said garden club member Velta Kopacek, the sale co-chairwoman. "It's very unusual to have that many choices."
The garden club, a nonprofit group that just celebrated its 90th anniversary, has been selling lilacs for 48 years. Proceeds fund scholarships and beautification projects throughout the village.
Kopacek said different varieties of lilacs peak at different times in the spring and some bloom again in the fall.
"We have two re-blooming plants, which not everyone has, the Bloomerang and Josee, which bloom in pink and purple. They make beautiful hedges," she said.
"Lilac (blooms) are one of those with a shorter life span. For the short amount of time, between their sweet fragrances and how beautiful they are, you can't beat them."
She said lilacs are fairly easy to grow and hardy enough to thrive in Illinois weather.
"They love the winters. It's very seldom you lose them," she said. "Once you establish them, they need so little care."
Kopacek said Lombard's connection with lilacs began when Col. William Plum and his family settled here in the mid-1800s and planted their favorite lilac varieties, later donating their estate and its gardens to the village.
"His family was very into lilacs and it just grew," she said.
At 8 a.m. Saturday, May 20, the park district will present its 12th annual Lilac Mutt Strut 5K and Puppy Path in Lilacia Park.
The festival culminates Sunday, May 21, with the Lilac Parade, which begins at 1:30 p.m. and runs for about two hours.
Spectators will line the 1.5-mile route that begins at Main Street and Wilson Avenue. The 120-unit parade will march north on Main to Maple, then head east, ending at Craig Place, said Ellyn Murphy, Lilac Parade Committee chairwoman.
This year's parade theme is "Who Is Your Hero?" and many of the marching units, floats and other participants will carry out the theme by honoring personal heroes, Murphy said.
Parade participants will include pipe bands, dancing groups, the Jesse White Tumblers, the South Shore Drill Team, a stilt-walking group from Madison, Wisconsin, local government officials and school marching bands.
This year marks the parade's 65th year, Murphy said. It began in the 1930s, went on hiatus during World War II, then resumed in 1959.
If you go
What: Lombard Lilac Time
Where: Lilacia Park, 150 S. Park Ave., Lombard
When: Saturday, May 6, to Sunday, May 21
Info: lombardlilactime.com, lombardgardenclub.org and lombardparks.com