Corn Fest reconnects DeKalb
After a year hiatus, free music and food return Aug. 27
Photo courtesy of JPM Photography- Your Dreams Captured
The band 7th heaven performed in 2019 at Corn Fest in downtown DeKalb. The band returns to the Corn Fest Sound Stage 9 p.m. Aug. 27 in downtown DeKalb
August 23, 2021
DeKALB – DeKalb’s annual Corn Fest will return from Aug. 27 to Aug. 29 in the city’s downtown for the first time since 2019. Corn Fest is billed as one of the last free music festivals in Illinois, according to the festival website, but also includes numerous carnival rides, vendors, food, beer, and other activities.
“Don’t let the name fool you,” Corn Fest chairperson Lisa Angel said. “A lot of people see the name DeKalb Corn Fest, and they think it’s like a small little corn boil, and then they come down, and they’re shocked to see everything that is down here.”
Attractions include a three day line-up of regional and national musical acts in addition to carnival rides, a bags tournament, arts and crafts, a car show, and the namesake corn boil from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Aug. 28. Entry into Corn Fest is free.
“You could literally come down, watch the bands, eat free corn, look at stands, and not spend a penny, so it’s really nice for the students,” Angel said. “There is plenty for them to do besides just the music.”
Angel said fest-goers can enjoy the musical acts from free bleacher seating on Locust Street or they can pay for sound stage tickets which allow viewing from directly in front of the stage. Sound stage tickets start at $8 and, for the first time, are solely available online at the Corn Fest website by credit or debit card.
“It helps keep the lines moving, and a lot of kids, especially college kids, want to use a credit card instead of cash,” Angel said.
Selling passes digitally will also allow a more accurate estimate of the size of the crowds that Corn Fest draws. Past estimates have put the Corn Fest crowds anywhere between 10,000 and 20,000 people over the three days, Angel said.
One of the nearly one hundred vendors catering to this year’s crowds is Damien Cavazos, owner and proprietor of Big D’s Hotdogs, a local food truck business started in 2019.
Cavazos said he has been attending Corn Fest as a local for as long as he can remember, but Corn Fest 2021 will be his second time attending the event from the other side of the counter.
“It’s a whole different experience being on the other side of it, but it was definitely a positive experience,” Cavazos said. “I’m looking forward to coming back this year. I’m just looking forward to seeing some faces I haven’t seen in a while after 2020 and just looking forward to the environment in a sense. I know a lot of people are missing that.”
Cavazos said he’s been able to utilize his food truck at other events since the COVID-19 lockdowns were lifted, but says that nothing has compared to his past experience at Corn Fest.
This year will also be the first time the interior of the newly renovated Egyptian Theatre at 135 N. Second St. will be utilized by the fest, after the proprietors volunteered its usage for hosting Corn Fest’s community theatre acts, Angel said.
”It’s a great way to not only go and see some of your local NIU acts, but to see all of the renovations that have been done to the Egyptian Theatre,” Angel said. “It was a great thing for them to offer for us because we had a community stage at the end of the street and the problem was the stage was just too small. It was crowded.”
Angel said dance troops and other acts would often have to perform on the ground rather than the stage due to space limitations一 a problem that performers will not have to worry about inside the Egyptian Theatre.
Angel also said weather concerns will no longer affect the performers or audience members indoors. Entry to the community theatre stage is also free.
“(Corn Fest) has been a tradition for both DeKalb and NIU students and we have many of them come back every year,” Angel said. “Any NIU students who haven’t been down to it really owe it to themselves to come on down.”
Corn Fest will be primarily clustered on Locust Street and Lincoln Highway with First Street and Fourth Street marking the event’s West and East boundaries respectively. Free parking is available on the North side of Grove Street in between Third Street and Fourth Street and NIU students can take the Huskie line from campus directly to downtown DeKalb.
Pets are not allowed entry.