Around Chicago: Ravenswood Art Fest!

With the thermometers taking a slow but sure tumble down the scale, summer is ending and the brief fall we have is getting into its stride. With the end of summer comes the end of such neighborhood staples like outdoor fairs and festivals, such as Argyle’s Thursday night food fest and Edgewater’s Art Festival. One of the festivals that came and went was the Ravenswood Art Fair, which happens annually just about thirty minutes from Loyola Chicago’s campus. I was able to go this year with my roommates from sophomore year, and it was so fun!

 

Personally, I adore craft and art shows like these. I blame my mother – she does as well, and we’ve been going to different ones all of my life. In the winter, she even sells personalizable ornaments at some, which goes to show how much she loves them. So of course, even in Chicago, off I go. I found Ravenswood’s very cute and notable for many things that set them apart from other ones I’ve gone to, such as two beer tents pouring local craft beers and a sign on each stall showing where each vendor was from – and of course, all local (ish). I was sucked in immediately.

It was very funny to me the amount of candle stands – one woman was selling a fall variety in jars with wood wicks, another stall specialized in candles that smelled like alcohols and came in their bottles with the tops cut off, another had candles all in second-hand mugs and containers rescued from garage sales and consignment stores. Another had expensive but fantastic quality ones in glass cups that could be used after the candle was done. I was in heaven. I love candles. I bought three from the first lady. I couldn’t have stopped myself if I tried.

But the other shops were cool as well! There were jewelers, watch-part accessories, ink artists, photographers, and so on. Although Ravenswood wasn’t extraordinarily huge, it was big enough for us to have spent about two hours there, walking up and down and stopping to pet the dogs. Plus, next to one of the beer tents, there were food trucks and live music from (you guessed it) local Chicago bands. None of my roommates are from Chicago, but after almost four years here we feel pretty connected and very glad to be able to support the neighborhoods our adopted city.

As we were leaving, Ravenswood showed us something else we weren’t expecting – drawn in by someone telling us about a ‘Cats Against Catcalling’ something-or-another with live cats, we walked into an old building to find an art exhibit by survivors of sexual violence, with scattered cats up for adoption around the floor we could interact with. Next to that area was a small natural history museum with free books (I nabbed a guide book to Britain from the ‘80s, for some reason).

A cute show with good friends and excellent candles (the odds are high that when you’re reading this, I have one lit…) If/when you’re here in the late summer, I recommend checking it out!