Southtown District Throws Weekend Festival

In the Southtown Business District, business owners are looking to drum up excitement for the burgeoning area.

Planning for the inaugural , which runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, began when the business group decided to come together to draw customers to the area earlier this year.

Maria Onesto Moran, owner of , said store owners in the business district have tried to become a united front before, but "for whatever reason this time it worked."

Several hundred people are expected to turn out for the festival, which will feature face painting, a magician, henna, makeovers, origami and manicures, as well as sidewalk sales, giveaways, a scavenger hunt and demonstrations.

The shopping strip between Lexington and Van Buren streets often gets less attention than the eventful area and the South Marion Street District (aka the ), but those in the area are hoping that all changes soon.

“We have businesses on the block who would like to see more unity and attention paid to this part of Oak Park,” Moran said. “There are treasures that people don’t know about, great events on [Oak Park] Avenue. Downtown and Marion Street do a great job of getting people to come up that way, but we haven’t done much of that in our district.”

The first 250 children will get "Southtown Passports" with deals from the participating businesses. More special deals await adult shoppers.

And this won’t be the only event Southtown has in store; there’s a holiday event in the works for December. The , Green Home Experts and the already have holiday events, but Moran said the group is working to bring more businesses aboard.

Here's a look at participating businesses for Saturday's event:

• Yova Shop
• Floyd Vaughn Jr. Insurance Investments
• Altcare Health Center
• Chic Chick Boutique
• Fifth-Third Bank