Festival of the Little Hills

I’ve lived in St. Charles for about 5 years and finally made it out to this event. I left wondering why I waited so long to check it out!
Walking around Old Town is always fun with all the shops on a regular day. The Festival of the Little Hills takes it up to «11» with the sheer number of tents set up side by side, from one end of Main St. to the other. And just when you think you are done, your ears perk up, and you hear music and PA systems in the distance. A row of tents off to the side takes you to the street along Frontier Park where you find nothing but tents, live bands, beer stations, and whatever else you can imagine lining the park itself.
I didn’t give myself nearly enough time on the first day to take it all in. I arrived around 7pm, still without dinner, and took a good portion of my time getting dinner. Despite a lot of rain, we took our son and my mom along to walk Main St. and barely made it all the way down the street before time to return to our shuttle before it stopped running for the night.
Some of the shops we noted were pretty identifiable for any festival, craft shops galore, artists tents, candles, spices, dip mixes, food and beer stops, baked goods, quilts, purses, leather shops, yard art, some kids toys, christmas décor, and much more. We didn’t buy much thanks to the shuttle bus and already toting a stroller around, but we did make it a point to get the little man’s hand mold done. This was a luck of the draw find for us, as I had been looking into ways to make exactly this kind of thing at home. It was nice to find a way to do it on the spot and not have to worry about screwing it up and making a mess at home!

I couldn’t believe how many booths there were for this festival. This could easily keep you busy for the entire day, especially since this is along Main St. Plenty of variety with food options and shopping!

This is one of the best traditions that I participated growing up and I’m excited to continue it on with my own family.
St. Charles Main Street is unique in itself and when the festival (s) arrive every year the town just comes alive. Come prepared for crowds and plan on spending a good portion of your day there. Park wherever you can find a spot and start at one end and snake around the entire grounds. Be sure to go to the river front to listen to the live music.
There are plenty of food and craft vendors and you will see them year after year if they are one who has made this festival a home for their product.
There is something for everyone… and you won’t be disappointed!

I come to this every year for a few specific reasons. Mainly my girlfriend loves one of their dip stands, and buys a LOT of dips for us to enjoy over the next year. I also come because I generally like artsy stuff. It is always a complete mad house when it comes to parking/​walking/​anything really but it is usually worth it. This year we had great weather to walk around in, and it wasn’t quite as crowded as years past, which is nice. The thing that bums me out those, is most of the really cool stuff is just so high priced, that I can’t justify ever buying anything aside of dips…
All in all, i’ll be back again next year, but I hope one day they will have something cool I can actually afford!

Hoosier-​fest, same booths, no parking, and always way too crowded… yet every year im here, why? im not sure… i am just drawn to it. perhaps the people watching, or just tradition. ive come for the last few years, and for some odd reason, ill be back again next year.

I was surprised at how awesome this festival was! It was my first time and it took a good three hours of my time. My mother in law and I walked the entire perimeter of the festival and by every booth. The variety of wares being sold was staggering. Everything from food items, pottery, holiday items, soaps, furniture, toys, antiques… and more. I enjoyed seeing the booths and my one complaint is that some just seemed like cheap resalers of things made in China, whereas many were hand made items. I prefer the latter, as I think most people do. So be careful if you go to check for tags or info on the craftsperson.
There were food and beverage vendors all along the route, so it made it easy to get a beverage on that hot day. Loved the fresh squeezed lemonade that I bought from Boy Scouts. It might have been the best I’ve ever had! There were port a potties but St. Charles also has public restrooms that were a step up from that (at least had soap and running water!)
Most of the shops along Main Street were open for business despite it being Sunday morning when I went, so I could go in and check them out too. Loved that! I need to get to this area soon because their shops are so cute.
I definitely plan on coming to the festival every year now. Got some holiday gifts and of course, gifts for myself! I can’t imagine a festival being much better than this.

Yeah I am not sure why I get drug to this every year, I think its because I like to walk around and people watch mostly. I never really buy anything and the food selections get crazier every year with deep fried Twinkies and Oreos and the all might funnel cake. But this year it was to hot and I didn’t feel like eating anything.
Other than that we always get some SoakStone coasters, a quilt for the up coming kids or a candle from one of the places here.
They have allot of cool crafts, but like others have said it feels like they would be in my grandma’s house or some things that would end up in the closet taking up space.
I really think that this year was pretty small, they usually have a huge tent and it wasn’t set up this time.
All around just OK.

Huge selection of vendors. and they had me at «fried cookie dough». Expensive stuff, but what I’d expect at a fair like this. You can spend hours walking along the river front and main street. by the end you’ll realize just how many vendors are selling the same stuff and will be tired of looking. A few cool unique things though and I enjoyed people watching too. Score of the day was the wine slushie free sample! They hooked me, I bought two bags and one of a sugar free margarita mix. I’ll be trying those out *very* soon! Didn’t stick around for any entertainment. too hot and too crowded.

This festival is fine if you like crafty stuff for your home. Like floral wreaths and homey stuff your mom might like and/​or have in her house. There is some cool stuff, but it’s few and far between. I am a giant fan of ceramics and they are a few different artist who offer cool stuff. There are a couple painters, but it’s mostly midwest over priced homey crap. If you need a washer game, you can get one here for too much money.
The entertainment is meh. If you love cover bands you should find yourself here. The only reason I go is for the junk food. They had craw fish étouffée that was to die for! Your standard fair food was available. Hot dogs, brats, gyros, corn dogs, roasted nuts and kettle corn.