Huntley's Turkey Testicle Festival continues under new owners

Customers hoping to stop in Adams Automotive on their way home from work Wednesday and get a tune up before the long Thanksgiving weekend were out of luck.

The staff at the Richmond repair and service shop had more pressing things to attend to, namely turkey testicles.

The shop's employees persuaded the owner, Paul Adams, to attend the 27th annual Turkey Testicle Festival with them in Huntley.

"They wanted to check it out, so I said, 'If we get everything done, we'll close up early and check it out,'" Adams said. "So we got done early, and here we are."

Wednesday was the first time Adams had attended the annual event, a fundraiser for local charities, in nine years.

"It's changed a lot. It was just a small bar in there," Adams said, pointing to the Parkside Pub, the downtown Huntley bar that puts on the event. "It's way, way bigger."

This year's festival was the first under the Parkside Pub's new owners, Jeff Lovell and Mark Weishaar, who took over the establishment from Mark and Cindi McDonald at the beginning of this year.

Lovell and Weishaar closed down the pub for several weeks early this year to remodel the popular hangout, but they never gave any thought to ending the pub's claim to fame.

"It's a mainstay here, so you definitely want to keep it going," Weishaar said Wednesday. "It keeps Huntley on the map."

The new owners redid the layout of the sprawling tent that holds most of the festival goers and added another band to the all-day lineup, but they kept the basic formula: music, beer and deep-fried turkey testicles.

"We have 1,100 pounds of you know what," Weishaar said.

"You want to run out, because what are you going to do with them after today?"

Mike Bartolone, a carpenter from McHenry, was among an estimated 4,000 people who stopped by between 11 a.m. and 1 a.m.

"It's just the local people and the people you grew up with," Bartolone said. "You run into people you haven't seen in a long time."

As for the centerpiece of the event, Bartolone said, "It could be a part of a shoe for all I know, but all I come here for is this," he said, motioning around the crowded tent. "It's a fun time for everybody."