Great PrairieFest cicada contest to celebrate coming cicada brood

Oswegoland Park District Superintendent of Recreation Kristie Vest is hopeful the expected arrival of a larger than normal brood of cicadas won’t negatively impact next month’s PrairieFest.

Put on by the Oswegoland Park District, PrairieFest is Kendall County’s largest festival, attracting upwards of 75,000 people every year. PrairieFest will take place from June 13-16 over Father’s Day Weekend at PrairieFest Park, 91 Plank Drive.

As part of the festival, the Park District is organizing the Great PrairieFest Cicada Shell Diorama Contest, which will take place on June 15 at the PrairieFest Family Tent. Participants of all ages are invited to create a display with their dioramas using the shells of the cicadas.

“We decided that instead of letting this be something that we would worry about, we would turn it into something positive.”

—  Kristie Vest, superintendent of recreation of Oswegoland Park District

“It was born of a concern that the cicadas were going to negatively affect PrairieFest,” said Vest, who also is festival director for PrairieFest. “Our feeling was that they were going to make for a lot of noise and maybe even a little bit of a mess. These bugs tend to like trees and because PrairieFest Park is in an open park, we’re probably not going to have too much of a problem with them at the park. But they could be a noise deterrent.”

Some areas of Illinois might see two broods of cicadas – the 17-year brood (so named because the cicadas emerge every 17 years) – and the 13-year brood. According to University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator Jamie Viebach, Northern Illinois will only see the 17-year brood.

However, the brood is expected to be large in number. The 13-year brood will be emerging further south in counties like Coles, Douglas and Champaign, she said.

“We decided that instead of letting this be something that we would worry about, we would turn it into something positive,” Vest said. “A lot of people have memories of growing up and having a summer where the number of cicadas was bigger than normal and it looks like we’re about to have one. The shells are going to be everywhere and we thought we might have some fun with it by making dioramas like we all did in elementary school way back when and using the cicada shells as main characters.”

All dioramas should be around the size of a standard shoebox and sides may be removed.

Diorama drop off is from 1 to 1:30 p.m. June 15, with the diorama gallery open for voting from 2 to 4 p.m.

More information about PrairieFest is at prairiefest.com.