Dandelion Wine festival to take place in Waukegan

WAUKEGAN – Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine Arts & Music Festival is a free event that features arts, crafts and music for the entire family.

The festival will be from noon to 4 p.m. Aug. 20 at Bowen Park in Waukegan and is presented by the Waukegan Park District Cultural Arts Division with sponsorship support from the Waukegan Arts Council and the Waukegan Historical Society.

The festival’s theme is “Ray Bradbury … We Remember You!”

Waukegan’s favorite son, Ray Bradbury, who passed away on June 5, 2012, was all about the arts. In tribute and in celebration, Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine Arts & Music Festival features multiple outdoor and indoor staging areas of music and art.

Food and refreshments will be available for purchase throughout the day at the festival.

Artists and crafters will be displaying art and conducting demonstrations, as well as selling art. For kids, Gary Moore, a published children’s writer, will be reading portions from his children’s book, “What Daddy Do.” There also will be a children’s activity involving planting sunflower seeds in a garden.

The Arts Park Van will be providing art projects for attendees. For international dance fans, Ntege Moses (aka Jerom Bixe) will perform Ugandan traditional, continental African forms, Afro and contemporary dance in front of the Jack Benny Center for the Arts at 3 p.m.

The festival’s Outdoor Pavilion Music Stage will be co-headlined by Juiette Z. Payne (noon to 12:30 p.m) and Zion Ari (2 to 2:30 p.m.). Juiette Z. Payne (2:05 to 2:40 p.m.) and “Jazzman” Jeff Justman (3:25 to 4 p.m.) will co-headline the Indoor Acoustic Music Stage in the Schornick Theatre.

Free parking is available at Bowen Park.

For more information about Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine Arts & Music Festival, visit www.waukeganparks.org, www.jackbennycenter.org or call the Waukegan Park District at 847-360-4740.