45,000 expected for Pride of the Fox RiverFest

Everyone needs a little free fun these days, and the Pride of the Fox RiverFest is just the spot.

This weekend is its 27th annual festival held in downtown St. Charles, and event organizers expect 45,000 people to converge on the city for the three-day festival.

But this event stands out from other festivals for one reason: dragon boats.

"Every festival has craft shows and music, but we have water ski shows and dragon boat racing, and others don't," said event director Joy Meierhans.

The dragon boats were introduced to the festival in 1992 after Meierhans looked for a way to hold a boating competition on the Fox River that was quiet and produced no wake.

Each dragon boat team is made up of 20 people: 18 rowers, one drummer to keep the rowers in sync, and a flag catcher at the front whose job is to reach out and grab the flag at the finish line. Also on the boat is a steersman, who is not a part of the team, but rather a professional from the American Dragon Boat Association (oh, yes, it's real).

Event organizers experiment each year with new attractions, but the dragon boat has proved to be one of the most successful additions.

This year, the festival will debut a new event that a volunteer suggested: a frozen T-shirt contest. A T-shirt is soaked in water and frozen, and the competition is for contestants to pry open the T-shirt and put it on first.

Some experiments do not work so well, as was the case with the sand sculpture.

"We didn't want to fly some guys in just for the sand sculpture, so to save money we had a local ice sculptor make the sand sculpture. Ice and sand are not at all the same consistency, so it didn't work out so well," Meierhans said.

In 2000, Woodstock resident Ted Siebert took over designing the festival's 40-ton sand sculpture, and it's turned out well ever since.

Like the dragon boats, the elaborate water ski show is a big draw for the festival because there are few shows like it in the area. About 50 men and women perform for nearly an hour on the river as people watch from the shore.

Meierhans' favorite event is the Dancing under (not "with") the Stars in Lincoln Park.

"It's an old-fashioned event. One night is a swing band, and the next is a '50s rock and roll band," Meierhans said.

The show can't go on without the festival's volunteers, all 100 of them. In recent years, more and more of the festival's tasks have been done by volunteers to keep costs under control and the event free to the public.

"Many of our volunteers are in charge of things: they run sites and act as event managers and site managers," Meierhans said.

In addition to the dragon boat racing and water ski show, there will also be face painting, Fox Valley Idol singing contest, a fine art show, and several other activities.

The festival runs Friday, June 12 to Sunday, June 14. Its hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, and on Sunday it opens at the same time but closes at 7 p.m.

For details on the events or how to volunteer, visit prideofthefox.com

<p class="factboxheadblack">Pride of the Fox RiverFest</p> <p class="News"><b>When:</b> 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, June 12 and Saturday, June 13; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, June 14</p> <p class="News"><b>Where:</b> Downtown St. Charles</p> <p class="News"><b>How much?</b> Admission is free; there is a charge for food and carnival rides. </p> <p class="News"><b>Info:</b> <a href="http://www.prideofthefox.com" target="new">prideofthefox.com</a></p>