NORTH MAYFAIR — Chicago has 77 official community areas plus scores of unofficial neighborhoods.
To borrow an analogy from the movies, some are blockbusters — Lincoln Park and Lakeview are like the "Batman v. Superman" of Chicago — and some are art-house indies.
The people of North Mayfair get this.
Dubbed a "pocket neighborhood of Albany Park" (the community area in which it sits), North Mayfair — not to be confused with just plain Mayfair to the south — is bounded by Lawrence, Bryn Mawr (or arguably Foster), Pulaski and Cicero, streets that even some North Siders associate with "far."
So the leaders of the North Mayfair Improvement Association are hitting the festival circuit to increase their visibility.
Cider and Sliders, scheduled for Labor Day weekend, has just been announced as the neighborhood's entry in the city's summer events calendar.
Why cider and sliders?
"Everything else is taken," explained Lynn Burmeister, association board member, at the group's April meeting.
Patty Wetli talks about the newest festival coming to Chicago this summer.
Special Events Management, which also helped Albany Park launch its World Fest in 2014, will manage the festival and coordinate logistics, vendors, cider and beer distributors, entertainment and security.
"All of these communities, people would never go to ... except for the festival," said Hank Zemola, founder and CEO of the events company.
In the fest's first year, he's hoping to attract six or seven slider vendors and will balance local music acts with proven crowd pleasers along the lines of Sixteen Candles, he said.
For the improvement association, making money off the fest, particularly in its inaugural year, is a lower priority than showcasing the neighborhood, from its parks to its historic bungalow district.
"The main thing is developing community. It gets us connected to businesses and gets residents out and about in the neighborhood," said association president Jim O'Reilly.
"The key is signaling to the outside, 'We are here,'" he said.
Though a number of details are still to be determined, Cider and Sliders will be held Sept. 3-4, centered at Lawrence and Elston avenues. The suggested admission donation will be $5.
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