Whether you enjoy parades, carnival rides, beauty queens or fireworks you will find lots to enjoy this Labor Day holiday period across Vermilion county.
Parades will be taking place in Hoopeston, Danville, and Westville. Hoopeston’s Grand Parade – starting at 10:30 Saturday morning – is part of the 81st National Sweet Corn Festival. Danville’s Labor Day parade starts at 9:30 Monday morning along North Vermilion Street. It is sponsored by the Vermilion County Federation of Labor. Westville’s Labor Day Parade is scheduled to start at 11:30 Monday morning along State Street (Illinois route one).
And the National Sweetheart Pageant is taking place again this year at Hoopeston’s National Sweetcorn Festival.
Brad Hardcastle is the Executive Director of the Sweetheart competition…
AUDIO: Then we have preliminary competition on Saturday night, and then finals on Sunday night. (And these girls, where do they come from?) Well, they’re from as far west as Hawaii and Alaska, and as far east as Vermont; and everywhere else in between. We have 19 contestants this year.
Hardcastle says contestants will be performing a variety of things for the talent competition portion of judging…
AUDIO: It runs the gamut. There’s a speed painter, there’s a ventriloquist, there’s baton twirlers, there’s singers; anything you can imagine is here.
And Hardcastle says some contestants have more experience than others…
AUDIO: Some of these young ladies are near the end of their pageant careers. This is like their last hurrah for them. And some of them are just beginning. We have some 18 or 19 year old contestants here, and we have some that are aging out. So you really run the gamut of contestants, and where they are in their pageant careers.
There are lots of other activities at the National Sweetcorn Festival – which is sponsored by the Hoopeston Jaycees…
AUDIO: Well, we have our annual demolition derbies on Saturday and Sunday nights. We have a band and a beer tent on Friday night. And of course sweetcorn, free sweetcorn; on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
Since this is the 81st National Sweet Corn Festival in Hoopeston Hardcastle was asked what he thinks it is that has kept it going…
AUDIO: You know, a lot of it is the community involvement. I mean everyone in town is involved in this festival one way or another. So that’s what’s kept a lot of this going. Even when our numbers are dwindling, we still have people that step up, and take care of everything to do with the festival.
All activities take place at Hoopeston’s McFerren Park where Hardcastle noted 25 additional parking spaces have been added (on the east side of the park) for people with disabilities.
FOR EVENT’S SCHEDULE INFORMATION PLEASE GO TO https://www.hoopestonjaycees.org/festival/
