Lisle sets its eyes on next year's festival

The tents still were coming down in Lisle's Community Park Monday afternoon, but organizers of the annual Eyes to the Skies festival were already planning for next year.

Fest Chairman Wayne Dunham had his first planning meeting for 2009's fest over lunch on Monday.

In total, organizers believe this may have been one of the balloon festival's better years, drawing more than 200,000 people from across the suburbs.

"Planning (the festival) could easily be a full-time job - it takes about 30 percent of my time annually," Dunham said. "So we just went over briefly what went right and wrong. Wednesday night we'll begin the in-depth discussion about what to bring back next year."

The list of what went right, Dunham said, will be considerably longer, starting with the committee's decision to cater to the younger set by bringing in Radio Disney and stars such as Drake Bell.

Bell, 20, is known in those circles as the heartthrob of Nickelodeon's "Drake and Josh" television series. Stars of Disney's new "Camp Rock" movie also drew lines that wrapped around the park.

"If I told you the decision to bring them in was incredible and wildly successful, that would be an understatement," Dunham said. "We made a commitment that we would make the fest a fun place for everyone to go so we're pretty pleased with ourselves today."

Other aspects likely making a comeback next year, due to their popularity over the weekend, are the Espana Air Defiant Stunt Show and Circus and the Eviva Cabaret outdoor nightclub, which was popular with the 20s and 30s crowds.

"(Eviva was) packed solid every night," Dunham said.

Still riding high Monday, Dunham struggled to find any disappointments in the fest but quickly remembered the bills that need to be paid in the coming weeks.

"For the next month all we'll see are invoice after invoice for the bills that need to be paid," he said. "But I guess that's just the cost of doing business."

Beer sales also were much lower than expected but the cola-guzzling kids made up for it.

"When we sell that much pop, we make just as much money as we would have selling beer so even that worked out," Dunham said. "It's just another silver lining."