After seven years, Oz event coming back to Porter County in May

The Wizard of Oz is coming back to Chesterton Memorial Day weekend, sort of.

Wizard of Oz Days is planned for May 22 and 23 at Dunleland Falls Banquet and Event Center, 1100 N. Max Mochal Highway.

Organizer Jackson Bishop, who started a similar festival in his hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, five years ago, admitted it was outside of Chesterton town limits, though the banquet hall has a Chesterton address.

“It was the best we could do,” he said.

Still, the popular event, held from 1981 through 2012 that occupied downtown Chesterton for most of those years, will feature many of the same charms, including look-alike contests and other festivities.

“People have been on me for the longest time to bring one back to Chesterton,” Bishop said, adding he met with Jean Nelson, the founder of the Chesterton festival, before she died in 2016.

“Jean was very helpful in helping us get our festival started in Missouri,” Bishop said, adding the festival’s founder offered tips of what to do and not to do she gleaned during the 31 years the festival was here.

He noted there’s an active Wizard of Oz community from all over the world and Chesterton was their mecca.

“Jean and her group put their heart and soul into it and that’s what made it special for 30-some years,” he said, adding he’s always been a big fan of “The Wizard of Oz.”

Nelson’s great-grandchildren are on the festival committee, Bishop said, and artist Tim Wolak, who designed the festival’s poster for many years, is serving as the event’s official artist. His children are involved, too.

Six people who played Munchkins as children but did not have dwarfism have been invited to the festival and Bishop hopes at least three of them can make it. Relatives of actors from the movie will attend the festival as well.

Additionally, Mary Ellen St. Aubin, 99, whose late husband, Parnell, was a soldier in Munchkinland, is expected to attend the festival, too, Bishop said, calling her the “first lady” of the festival.

He added there also will be a celebrity appearance at the festival, though he wasn’t yet at liberty to say who that might be.

The Missouri event is one day and draws upwards of 6,000 people, he said, adding in its heyday, the Chesterton festival brought in 75,000 to 100,000 people.

“For a town the size of Chesterton, that’s unbelievable, and I think that’s why we’re getting so much attention,” he said, adding it was the largest festival of its kind in the nation. “Even though it won’t be the same, it’s still going to have the feel of the original festival.”

He expects fans of all ages to attend the reinvigorated festival.

“It’s finding that niche,” Bishop said.

While downtown Chesterton was a great setting, the crowds hurt business downtown, Bishop said. “That’s why we decided to look outside the box,” he added.

The banquet center offers several advantages, including substantial parking and large grounds, offering the ability to hold some festival activities inside and others outside.

While the brunt of the activities will take place that Friday and Saturday, there will be pre- and post-festival events on May 21 and 24, including a picnic on May 24 at Thomas Centennial Park in downtown Chesterton.

Most of the activities will be free, though some aspects, including a gala and a breakfast, will require paid tickets in advance.

“It’s basically going to be a tribute to the past, not only Wizard of Oz but the festival in Chesterton itself,” Bishop said.

For more information, find Wizard of Oz Days on Facebook.