During the July 4 weekend, these Midwestern fairs will ignite plenty of family fun with fireworks, festivities and much more.
By Ann Hattes

Find July 4th fireworks, food and fun with rockets soaring over Lake Michigan, booms and blooms in Missouri, or a 19th-century celebration in an Indiana restored pioneer village. Summer is here, and fairs celebrate the best of the season.

Above: The Chicago lakefront is illuminated with fireworks during the Taste of Chicago festival. City of Chicago photo Below: Pioneer Village in Indiana’s Spring Mill State Park will feature historical re-enactors and old-fashioned fun on July 4. Spring Mill State Park photo

Taste of Chicago

Start off the summer with a bang at the 29th Annual Taste of Chicago, June 26–July 5 in Grant Park. Sample everything from turkey legs and Cajun meatballs to pot stickers, skewered shark and prime rib quesadillas; there will be 300 menu items in all. Tasty dishes from more than 50 Chicago restaurants are served.

Enter this gateway to great eating at Congress Circle. Ticket booths at this main entrance sell tickets in strips of 12 for $8. Credit cards are accepted with photo ID. Cash is not accepted at the food booths, but once inside, there are additional ticket booths.

Celebrity chef Emeril Lagassee will make an appearance at 4 p.m. June 26 at Dominick’s Cooking Corner.

Free musical performances go on at the Petrillo Music Shell adjacent to the central Taste grounds. Seating is first-come, first-served, plus ample lawn seating will be available. Enjoy local musicians on the Taste Stage.

See members of Chicago’s sport teams at Taste Sports. Family Village offers fun for youngsters, while the International Pavilion combines entertainment from around the world with a market filled with treasures of Africa, Europe, South America and Asia.

Taste celebrates Independence Eve (July 3) at 9 p.m. with a 20-minute pyrotechnic display shot from a barge off Monroe Harbor. Prime viewing is Butler Field by the Petrillo Music Shell and Buckingham Fountain Plaza, with vantage points from Museum Campus at Roosevelt to Navy Pier at Grand.

Taste opens each day at 11 a.m. and closes at 9 p.m., with a later closing at 9:30 p.m. on July 3 and an earlier closing at 6 p.m. on July 5. While taking public transportation is recommended, four parking lots are located underneath Chicago’s lakefront park.

Fair St. Louis

Summer comes alive at Fair St. Louis, rated one of the Top 10 places in the country to watch fireworks in 2008. Free live music, family-friendly activities and fireworks are part of this two-day festival on the levee below the Gateway Arch along the Mississippi River from 6–10 p.m. on July 3 and from 11 a.m.–10 p.m. July 4.

Fireworks take place both nights at 9:15 p.m. Guests are encouraged to bring a blanket (recommended) or lawn chairs. There is seating on the Arch steps facing the levee stage on a first-come, first- served basis. Seat cushions are available for purchase.

Support the event by “adopting” a fireworks shell for $75. Adopt-A-Shell patrons are invited to a donors-only event with a superb view of the fireworks and picnic fare. Reservations are required and can be made online at www.celebratestlouis.org.

Main stage national acts include Counting Crows at 8 p.m. on July 3, Nickelodeon’s Naked Brothers at 1 p.m. and Train at 8 p.m. on July 4. Both days feature the K-Town Kids Zone, an entertainment district for children with hands-on activities. Also appearing on July 4 is the Purina Incredible Dog Team that showcases high jumping, Frisbee-catching dogs. Come downtown at 10 a.m. for the annual Veiled Prophet parade on July 4.

Coolers and outside food and beverage are prohibited. Vendors sell everything from grilled chicken to fried rice to nachos with proceeds from beverage booths benefitting local charities. On July 4, guests can dine at The Sauce Café on the riverfront featuring a prix-fixe three-course menu for $30 per person; reservations are suggested.

Booms & Blooms

At Powell Gardens in Kingsville, Mo., the Booms & Blooms Festival will be July 3 with a rain date of July 5.

Children can enjoy the cool spray of the Fountain Garden and–for $2 or $3–have their faces painted or paint a flowerpot. Live music begins at 4:30 p.m. with Dixieland jazz by the New Red Onion Jazz Babies followed by a rousing patriotic pops performance by the Lee’s Summit Symphony at 7:30 p.m. The evening ends with a dramatic fireworks display that will illuminate a dark country sky.

Early July is peak season for viewing the more than 400 varieties of daylilies in the garden. Arrive early to tour the new 12-acre Heartland Harvest Garden, the nation’s largest edible landscape, representing the journey of food from seed to plate. If time permits, enjoy the Island Garden, the Marjorie Powell Allen Chapel, the Rock and Waterfall Garden and the Perennial Garden, but know that these areas will be roped off beginning at 7 p.m. in preparation for the fireworks.

New this year is an ice cream social with flavors such as strawberry peach, black walnut and maple nut available for purchase from Tad’s Frozen Custard at $2.50 a bowl.

Powell Gardens is 30 miles east of Kansas City on U.S. Highway 50. Bring lawn chairs or a blanket for seating on the lawn. Picnics are allowed within the performance area. Admission is $10 for adults; $9 for seniors; and $5 for children ages 5–12. Members of Powell Gardens and children 4 and under get in free. There is no extra charge for parking.

Military-style Fourth in Fort Leavenworth

Fort Leavenworth in Kansas has long been the place to go for fireworks with people coming from miles around. The fort begins the free July 4 celebration at 4 p.m. with food vendors, children’s games and activities. Band music starts at 5 p.m. This year’s festivities honor the Army’s 2009 Year of the Noncommissioned Officer.

Salute to the Union begins at 8 p.m. with cannons blasting as the name of each state and the date of its entry are called out. Band music continues until about 9:30 p.m. The spectacular 20-minute fireworks display across Merritt Lake is accompanied by patriotic music.

To enter the fort, guests need to have current photo ID, vehicle registration and proof of insurance. Children who are 16 or older accompanied by their parents also need a photo ID, though younger children with their parents do not.

Old-Fashioned Fourth in Mitchell, Ind.

You can celebrate an Old-Fashioned Independence Day at the Pioneer Village in Indiana’s Spring Mill State Park. Twenty historical buildings–like a gristmill, apothecary, blacksmith shop and weaving house–are the setting for patriotic and pioneer crafts.

The celebratory fun is a bit different each year. There might be opportunities to make cornhusk dolls, play clay marbles, try stick weaving and see how lumber was cut at the sawmill. There are no fireworks, but guests join a naturalist around an evening campfire. Bench seating is limited so bring your own chairs.

The event takes place only on July 4. Activities start in the morning and go to late afternoon, with a two- or three-hour gap before the start of the evening program. Park admission is $5 per vehicle for Indiana residents, $7 for out-of-state residents.

There is a large picnic area just outside Pioneer Village and also a concession stand. Food and drinks are not allowed in the village. Spring Mill Inn, located in the park about a half-mile away, offers lodging plus dining.

Ann Hattes is a contributor from Hartland, Wis.