Chicago's North Shore is Getting Another Redhead Festival

HIGHWOOD, IL - Gingers from all around the world are expected to gather in a tiny Chicago suburb this summer for what will be only the second ‘Festival of Redheads’ ever held in the United States.

Read More: How the 1st Redhead Festival Came to the United States

Last year’s inaugural event brought more than 2,500 people (about 1,100 of whom actually have red hair) to Highwood, a small city on Chicago’s North Shore bordered by Highland Park to the south and Lake Forest to the north.

The festival will take place on June 4 and 5 in an expanded area that will include not only City Hall Park, but nearby Everts Park in downtown Highwood as well. It’s the only United States affiliate of the well-known Redhead Days Festival in Breda, Holland.

Jim Stoecker, a redhead who owns Alex’s Washington Gardens restaurant in Highwood, is organizing the event again with the held of Redhead Piano Bar again this year.

“We had no idea how huge of a success our first annual Redhead Days Chicago Affiliate would be,” he said. “People have been reaching out all year long wanting to know if we were going to do it again and I’m so pleased to say we are.”

Stoecker told Patch last year he came up with the idea of bringing Redhead Festival to Highwood while biking across Europe a few years back with his wife and stumbling on the much larger Dutch Festival.

The June 4-5 gathering in Highwood will feature a ‘Carrot Cake Throwdown,’ red-themed cocktails and an aerial photo of all the lovely gingers in attendance. The carrot cake competition will be from 1-3 p.m. on June 4, with the photo set to be taken at 2 p.m. the next day.

Last year’s gathering, the largest ever of Redheads in the United States, featured a photo with 750 gingers outside Highwood City Hall.