Wednesday marks the beginning of the end for Ribfest in Naperville.
This is the final year for the event, a Fourth of July tradition for more than three decades. Next year it will move southeast to Romeoville.
While some are sad to see Ribfest leave, the good memories will linger on, they say.
As volunteers and crews worked in the heat and humidity at Knoch Park Tuesday to put the finishing touches on the main stage, food and beer tents, and carnival rides for the 31st annual Ribfest, the Naperville Sun talked to a few people who have been involved in the homegrown festival — some since the beginning.
Bruce Erickson
Bruce Erickson has only missed one day of Ribfest since he helped start the event in 1988.
Erickson, 71, is one of the original Ribfest organizers, joining forces with several others, including Glen Ekey, Mike Maher and “Billy Bones,” a ribber from Michigan.
“Billy Bones was a great guy,” Erickson said.
The Michigan ribber would travel from place to place all summer to bring his ribs to the masses, and he’s credited with helping secure the other ribbers who were part of the inaugural Ribfest held at Rotary Hill over Father’s Day weekend.
The festival has not only changed locations and dates since 1988, it’s grown exponentially.
“It’s very surprising. None of us thought when we started this thing we would see it grow the way it has,” Erickson said.
Being involved in Ribfest is fun, and Erickson said he enjoys helping the Exchange Club of Naperville raise money for agencies trying to eliminate child abuse and domestic violence.
Erickson recalls the first time he stood on the Ribfest main stage as an announcer, realizing just how many people were at the festival.
“I’m looking out at 30,000 people and I was just taken aback from what a huge event this has become,” he said.
The experience left him feeling gratified.
For starting an event named after a slab of meat and bones, you might wonder if everyone involved in Ribfest is actually a fan of ribs. Erickson is, and he eats enough for the year during the annual summer festival, he said.
“I find typically I eat ribs once a year and I eat them for four days straight,” Erickson said. Once Ribfest is over, he’s had his fill until the next year.
One surprising Ribfest experience for Erickson was when he heard the band Shinedown playing the main stage in 2017.
“I have never hard that experience before. I heard this beat and I was transported. I was absolutely mesmerized at the energy these guys were putting out,” he said.
Among other memories, Erickson recalls last year when rain temporarily shut down the fest. He went to sit in a concrete dugout on the girls softball field, located on the land on which Ribfest is held.
“Mayor Pradel was in there. He and I sat there and talked for quite a while. It was special to spend some one-on-one time with him,” Erickson said. “We weathered a storm together.”
Erickson said he can brag about how many days of Naperville Ribfest he’s attended, but “an awful lot of those days I was out there, (Pradel) was also out there.”
Emy Trotz
Emy Trotz, longtime executive assistant in the Naperville mayor’s office, has been volunteering with Ribfest since it began on Rotary Hill.
Trotz sold beer tickets at the first Ribfest, and as a volunteer has helped work with the rib vendors as a “runner,” to assist with the entertainment and sponsors, and as a co-chair for the whole event.
“For the Exchange Club of Naperville, it’s a major fundraiser,” she said. “I do it to give back to the community, and just to help out. I think the club members really want to give back to the charities.”
Trotz also observes that the musical talent has gotten bigger as the festival has been able to attract more major names.
The year Rick Springfield played the main stage, Trotz was the announcer. That experience marks one of her favorite memories.
After first joining Springfield on stage earlier in the night, a young girl with a medical condition who wore a shirt that said, “#1 Rick Springfield Fan,” got to close out the night with Trotz in front thousands of people as Trotz closed the event.
The experience of being on the stage with the young girl in front of the rock star’s fans is one Trotz finds most memorable.
Rick Grimes
Ribfest Executive Director Rick Grimes likens the growth of the annual festival to that of a parent observing a kid go from kindergarten to college.
“It’s like what you do when you watch your children grow,” Grimes said.
Parents don’t necessarily recognize the smaller increments because they’re around their children all the time, he said. It’s not until the child no longer fits in their clothes that parents realize how much their kids have sprouted.
That growth is one of the reasons the Exchange Club plans to leave the city for a 35-acres site near Romeoville Village Hall.
It’s not just the size of the event that’s expanded over the years, said Grimes, who’s been involved from the start. Ribfest’s reputation as a quality festival is known throughout the Chicago area and beyond, he said.
“It was pleasant to see how many communities reached out to host Ribfest,” Grimes said. “It’s the strength of the brand.”
Grimes said each year he wants three things: for people to be safe, patrons to have a great experience and the Exchange Club to raise money for charities.
Since Ribfest’s inception, the club has raised more than $17.5 million for agencies that work to protect children from abuse and prevent domestic violence.
“I was chairman the year we first netted $1 million,” Grimes said of his proudest achievement in 2007.
Ribfest proceeds have exceeded the $1 million mark multiple times since then, but “I was the first,” he said.
Grimes couldn’t single out a single favorite moment because there have been so many.
“I love getting to the park first thing — before the bomb sniffing dogs arrive — when the park is empty,” Grimes said. It’s the peace and serenity he loves to experience.
Once the day gets rolling, he said, it’s a challenge dealing with the changing weather and little issues that pop up. “We handle it well,” Grimes said.
Mary Howenstine
Mary Howenstine, director of marketing and public relations for Ribfest, moved to Naperville the same weekend as Ribfest 2000. Her home was just blocks away from the event.
“The Realtor tried to drive us around it and we were like, ‘What’s that? What’s going on?'” Howenstine said. “We thought it was really interesting and we thought it was really fun. The next year we were in a beer tent with our neighbors and that’s how we got involved.”
Howenstine said Hootie and the Blowfish, Huey Lewis and the News, and Steven Tyler are some of her favorite music highlights, and they all helped uphold the motto of Ribfest.
“The motto is still pretty consistent,” Howenstine said. “Good food, good music. In its essence, it’s the same event as when we started out, it’s just gotten bigger and there is more technology involved.”
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