Lot’s of things got cancelled last year due to the rotten pandemic of 2020 and one of them was The Heart of Illinois Fair. Well, this is a new year and I’m happy to announce that this long-standing Peoria tradition is back and better than ever!

The Fair opened up last night and I’m going to have two posts dedicated to this wonderful summer event. They had a pre-party on Monday and I was invited and below are photos from this fun evening.

Here we are at the home of the Heart of Illinois Fair, Expo Gardens.

The party is happening in the Beer Garden, one of my favorite spots at the Heart of Illinois Fair!

As usual, I’m early and the first one here.

Luckily, Marty showed up shortly after I arrived and iced down the beer and soon others started showing up.

Roxy, Roxy, Roxy!

Roxy’s a long standing member of the Board of Director’s at the fair and here she is with Annie who’s volunteering this year, Erica, who’s the President of the Fair and Greg, Roxy’s significant other and all-around nice guy and helper at the fair.

Great to see all of them!

I met Dan Brady, who’s our State Representative and I ran into Phil and Bobby Spears in the crowd.

As you can see, the party is starting to fill up with guests.

Check out the HOI swag: Beer Koozies and tote bags, very cool! And as you can see, this is the 72nd year of the HOI Fair! Very cool!

Erica and Roxy gave a nice talk about what’s happening this year at the fair and they thanked everyone who’s helping out to make this year’s fair happen.