Live, from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night starring this week’s host, The Heart of Illinois Fair with musical guests, The Blank Stairs and featuring Samantha and Annie Spears from the Wine Shed!
Now Please welcome this week’s host, The Heart of Illinois Fair!
Here we are at Expo Gardens for the 70th Heart of Illinois Fair! 70 years…my how the beers…I mean years fly by!
The first stop? The Beer Pavilion of course! It’s about 179 degrees out here, I definitely need one of their ice-cold beers!
And there it is, served up by this gentleman I met at the Heart Of Illinois Appreciation Party last Monday! Great to see him again and even greater to get this beer!
The Blank Stairs
The headlining musical act for the evening are The Blank Stairs, who we last saw at the Peoria Wingfest.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the 70th Heart of Illinois Fair, The Blank Stairs!
They definitely rocked the house and the crowd loved them! In addition to the fabulous tunes, they also had a cool light show happening.
You can read more about the band and listen to their music by checking out their website right here.
Saturday Night Dinner
Now it’s time to search for our annual Saturday night dinner at the fair.
I wandered around and saw some familiar faces behind the last booth pictured and it turns out that El Zarape has a booth this year at the fair! Let’s go up and say hi!
There’s Lily and her family behind the booth! Great to see them and Lily said this was their first year at the fair and things were going great!
She made me a trio of steak tacos and I went over to this dining area to enjoy them.
The tacos were delicious! One of the best treats I’ve ever had at the fair! Thanks to Lily and everyone from El Zarape for a delicious Saturday night dinner at the fair!
The Wine Shed
Another place that’s new to the Heart of Illinois Fair is the Wine Shed. I read about this place and you can go and do a wine tasting tour in here, so let’s go in and see what’s happening.
Bailey and Johnny were working the front table and for ten bucks you can not only have ten different tastes of wine, you also get a Heart of Illinois souvenir wine glass. Sounds good to me, I coughed up ten bucks and went inside.
Once inside I saw Samantha and Annie Spears, daughters of internationally renowned chicken farmer, Bobby Spears! Speaking of Bobby, don’t miss his Christmas in July this Wednesday at Jimmy’s Bar, it’s part of Jimmy’s 37th anniversary week celebrations!
Great to see both of them and Samantha introduced me to some of her friends.
Here are some of the friends of Samantha Spears, I didn’t write their names down because I was in a hurry to sample some wine! But thanks for the introductions, Samantha!
There was plenty of wine to sample and it was all smooth and delicious!
The two people pouring the samples were Barb from Kite Hill Vineyards in Carbondale, Illinois and Bill from Niemerg Family Winery in Findlay, Illinois.
Barb and Bill were both friendly and informative about the wine they poured. I look forward to seeing both of them at next year’s fair!
Classic Cars
This tent had a fleet of classic cars underneath it. They were all cool, but my favorite was this 1972 Cadillac Eldorado that was owned by Elvis Presley! Although that Elvis mannequin kind of gave me the creeps!
The Midway Rides and Games
Now let’s stroll down the midway and see some of the rides and games.
It’s all very colorful and sparkly here on the midway! I always like looking at the lit-up rides at the fair.
Cheers to everyone who puts on the Heart of Illinois Fair and happy 70th anniversary!
Related Posts: Saturday Night @: Casa Amigos Bar & Grill, Paparazzi and Castle’s Patio Inn.