The Lisle Eyes to the Skies Balloon Festival is more than a great family event offering fireworks, free entertainment, carnival, food and those beautiful hot air balloons we’ve all come to love. The Eyes to the Skies Balloon Festival is a not-for-profit, 501c3 organization that benefits charities through the Festivals affiliate members. The Festivals affiliate members spent countless volunteer hours and tireless effort went into making the Eyes to the Skies festival a great success. It is the hope of the Eyes to the Skies Festival committee that these financial contributions will assist the Lisle service organizations in continuing to provide their valuable services within the community.

Navistar presents the dates of Lisle Eyes to the Skies Balloon Festival …June 29th – July 1st, 2012. Visitors this year to the festival can expect daily launches of hot air balloons and nightly balloon glows, carnival, children’s area, Lumberjack show, craft fair, free live music, three nights of fireworks, food court, plus much more all located on 110 spacious acres at Lisle Community Park! For scheduled events and more information, visit the festival website www.eyestotheskies.org or call 630-541-6095.

Source: Trib Local: Lisle

A WGN Radio songwriting contest this spring “in search of the next great Cubs anthem” panicked certain die-hard Chicago Cubs fans, who assumed that the radio station was out to replace Goodman’s ballpark classic, “Go, Cubs, Go.”

Warrenville-based band the Fold won the new contest, earning more than 8,000 online votes for its original song “Let’s Go Cubbies.” (The runners-up: “Cubs Win” by 17 Candle and “Rockin’ Right at Wrigley” by Derrick Procell.)

“Let’s Go Cubbies” is a basic modern-rock song with driving guitar riffs and a sports venue-worthy stomp. A chorus of voices shouts the song title as the lyrics promise, “This is the season, oh yeah!”

The Fold is a quartet with three albums to its credit, two of them on Christian rock label Tooth & Nail. Its 2007 album “Secrets Keep You Sick” was nominated for a Grammy in the recording package category. The Fold will be performing on this summer’s Warped Tour, which stops July 7 at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park.

This wasn’t the Fold’s first ballgame, though. The songwriters behind the band have had considerable experience writing songs for sports teams.

Brothers Daniel and George Castady lead the Fold but also work as corporate jingle writers. Through their production company, Token Blokes, they’ve crafted “brand-enhancing” music for AT&T, Hershey, NASCAR, Lego and more.

Last year, they contracted with Banshee Music to compose two songs for each team in the NFL — that’s 64 songs — music that has been blared as teams take the field, score touchdowns or pause for TV breaks.

“It’s the same idea as this Cubs search,” Daniel Castady says. “They get sick of licensing, like, ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ for the [Carolina] Panthers, and they think, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have a song tailored for our team, and we actually own it?’ A friend emailed us the announcement of this Cubs contest, and we thought, ‘We can’t screw this up because we’re actually fans!’ ”

Castady has had to do his share of reassuring fellow fans that “Let’s Go Cubbies” will not replace “Go, Cubs, Go” at the ballpark.

“That was never the goal,” he says. “Ours, fortunately, will be just another song to add. Ultimately, it’s the Wrigley fans that make these things stick. Even the Steve Goodman song — I don’t think that was meant to be the Cubs song for all time. It was just embraced.”

Duffy adds, “If the Cubs decide in some way, shape or form to adopt ‘Let’s Go Cubbies,’ hey, great. We’re all too willing.

[The Fold will be playing on Saturday, June 30th at 7:00 pm at on the VanKampen Stage at Lisle's Eyes to the Skies Festival.]

-Article reposted from Chicago Sun Times

Source: Trib Local – Lisle

UPDATE: 6:15 launch. EYES TO THE SKIES LISLE!!!!!

UPDATE: the balloon launch was a huge success. @brianstoiber landed at Clow International Airport in Naperville. @Drew3927 landed about 1 mile southeast of the airport. The mass launch was beautiful from the sky. Pictures will be posted to out Flickr account most likely tomorrow or Tuesday.

We will still glow tonight and do tethered rides. $20 for adults and $15 for children.

There will be a parade in Lisle on Main St. At 11am.

Tethered rides were also available and will be again tonight. $20 for adults and $15 for children.