Festival History

Watseka Family Festival was established in 2019 with plans on providing a fun family event at an affordable price with quality entertainment for the community. In order to get the name out there the festival board hosted the first annual FREE 4th of July Street Dance and Golf Cart Scavenger Hunt in downtown Watseka, Illinois. 

During the first year, the board planned a 1-day festival held at the American Legion Park located in Watseka, IL! This included many performing acts such as: High Anxiety, Little Giant, Take Note Quartet, Jani Massey and Todd Pheifer & the Jennings Street Band with the band Gallagher as the main stage entertainment. The festival also had many family friendly events such as: Toddler Olympics, Flea Market / Craft Show, face painting, Bounce Houses, Switch It Up Gaming Trailer, FFA Petting Zoo, many Food Vendors and a Beer Garden. 

As the board began planning for 2020 they added an annual community wide Christmas Decorating Contest fundraiser to the event schedule in December of 2019. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, all 2020 events including the street dance/golf cart scavenger hunt, festival, and Christmas Decorating Contest were all canceled. 

In July 2021, the festival held another FREE street dance and a golf cart scavenger hunt. After that the festival was able to continue on, but was upgraded to a 3-day festival! The main stage entertainment was Roots & Boots (with (with Aaron Tippin, Sammy Kershaw and Collin Raye) on Saturday night. Other music acts for Friday and Saturday nights included Nick Lynch Band, Rock America, and Creedence Revived. Some of the family friendly events that were held during the 2021 festival were cow chip bingo, power wheels demo derby, bean bag tourney, face painting, Craft and Flea Market, Toddler Olympics, Car Show, Switch It Up Gaming, Brady Amusement Carnival Company, Petting Zoo, Food Vendors and Beer Garden. 

Following the 2021 festival, the board decided to host the annual Christmas Decorating Contest again. Then, the annual FREE street dance and a golf cart scavenger hunt was again held in July 2022.

The 2022 festival was headlined by Tracy Byrd with entertainment from Hairball, Nick Lynch Band, John David Daily and Daily Jr. Carnival performing throughout the 3-day festival. Other activities and shows during the event included: laser tag, bean bag tourney, petting zoo, car show, cow chip bingo, pony rides, a magic show, reptile show, & drug awareness trailer. Of course, we had a wide variety of food vendors and a beer garden. 

The Watseka Family Festival Board of Directors is excited to announce the new and upcoming festival events and entertainment soon! Keep watching for updates as we get closer!