Welcome to the 21th annual Crystal Lake Gala Festival. The Gala Festival was started 21 years ago by a group of Crystal Lake citizens that felt Crystal Lake needed a celebration for the Fourth of July and the Gala Festival was born. The Gala Festival provides the Fourth of July Parade and fireworks.

Many people are under the perception that these events are funded or subsidized by the City, but this is not true. The Gala committee, comprised of 15 volunteers, has been working extremely hard to organize the best Gala ever in the 21-year history. The funds that are generated by the event pay for the parade and fireworks, and also fund many organizations and groups in the Crystal Lake area. Groups like the Lions club, Rotary, High school sports teams and church groups help out at the Gala and donations are made to their organizations. These groups depend on these funds to run their programs. This makes the Gala Festival a completely self-sustaining event and one that is imperative to many groups.

Along with the organizations that are funded by the Gala, the festival has made donations to groups like PADS, Home of the Sparrow, Jaycees Share a Christmas, Shop with a Cop, DARE, Car seats for Kids, Jaycees Mission Inn, Raue Center, Heartland AIDS ride, along with funding the Sam Johns Scholarship at MCC.

Come out and help the tradition continue. Meet friends and family, bring your kids to Kids day activities, along with the best musical line up ever! Sister Hazel, Edwin McCain and the Ides of March just to name a few. Great food, an award winning parade and wonderful fireworks you can know that your money is going to many worthy causes throughout the city and county.