The carnival trucks were still loading out of the Metra lot on Shermer Road after Northbrook Days, ferris wheel disassembled, the stage where Deadfast and Probable Cause closed out five nights of music gone quiet. Northbrook Days ran August 5 through 9 this year, and for anyone who spent an evening there, it was the version of downtown Northbrook most people picture when they think about summer in this town: rides, funnel cake, a crowd spilling across the west Metra commuter lot.
But elsewhere in the park district, something faster and stranger has been happening most Thursday nights this summer. At Ed Rudolph Velodrome, riders on fixed-gear bikes with no brakes have been circling a banked track built in 1963, hitting speeds up to 45 miles per hour, with spectators able to watch from the rail. Northbrook Days runs for five days, while the velodrome hosts recurring races during the summer.
What Northbrook Days Actually Raises
Northbrook Days is worth understanding on its own terms before comparing it to anything else. It is run entirely by volunteers as the sole annual fundraiser for the Northbrook Civic Foundation, and since 1950 it has raised almost $4 million that goes back into the community in the form of need-based college scholarships and grants to local organizations. Past recipients have included the Northbrook Park District, the Northbrook Public Library, the Northbrook Symphony, and Special Gifts Theatre, among others. That is a serious civic footprint for an event built on carnival rides and a beer tent, and it explains why the week draws the crowd it does. People aren't just there for the funnel cake. They're funding the town's scholarship fund one ride ticket at a time.
That context matters, because it means the festival's five-day intensity is the point. It is designed to be loud, visible, and finite, a concentrated burst that raises money and then packs up. What it isn't designed to be is a representative sample of what Northbrook actually does with its summer nights.
The Rarer Show, Right Down the Road
Ed Rudolph Velodrome is one of only two short, banked tracks for official bicycle racing in the entire state of Illinois, and one of 28 in the country. The track itself is a 382-meter oval banked at 18 degrees, built in 1963 by former Park District Commissioner Ed Rudolph, according to the Northbrook Cycle Committee, which still runs the weekly racing program today. For a town of Northbrook's size, that is an unusual piece of infrastructure to have sitting quietly inside a public park.
The Thursday Night Racing series is where that infrastructure earns its keep. Racing starts promptly at 6:45 p.m. and runs until roughly 9 or 9:30, drawing about 200 riders on a typical night who reach speeds up to 45 miles per hour on bikes with fixed gears and no brakes, based on figures from the Northbrook Park District. The field spans categories from novice through Category 1, plus a junior division for riders age 10 to 18. This isn't a casual pickup ride. This year, the track hosted Week 12 of its season, a Scratch State Championship featuring the DeLanghe and Neimanas Trophy Races, according to the Cycle Committee's own schedule. That is a state championship happening inside Northbrook Park District boundaries, with nothing stopping anyone from walking up to the rail and watching.
Northbrook Days is a finite, heavily attended fundraiser, while Thursday Night Racing is a recurring, openly accessible event at a nationally uncommon track. The two offer different ways to spend a summer evening in Northbrook.
What's Still on the Calendar
Northbrook Days ending doesn't mean the season is over. Here is what's still running downtown and at the velodrome through the fall:
What | When | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Thursday Night Racing | Most Thursdays, 6:45 p.m. start | Ed Rudolph Velodrome, open to spectators, hosted by the Northbrook Cycle Committee |
Northbrook Farmers Market | Wednesdays, through October 14 | Downtown Northbrook |
Northbrook Brewfest, 6th annual | September 19 | Hosted by the Northbrook Park District |
The farmers market, confirmed on Chicago's North Shore CVB event page, remains open through mid-October, well past the point most people assume it has closed for the year. The Brewfest, in its sixth year, gives the calendar one more organized draw before the weather turns, landing about six weeks after Northbrook Days wraps and filling the gap the festival's absence leaves behind.
Where to Eat Before or After
The dining map around town has shifted enough this year that it's worth a quick update if your last visit was in 2025. Lazy Dog Restaurant opened in May at 992 Willow Road, the site of the former Granite City Food & Brewery, which had sat empty since closing in October 2019. It's the fourth Illinois location for a chain that now runs more than 40 restaurants across eight states, and the menu leans into scratch-made comfort food, handcrafted cocktails, and a rotating seasonal lineup, according to Patch's coverage of the opening.
A few miles away on Willow Road, Just Salad opened its Northbrook location in April, its 10th in Illinois and the newest addition alongside six Chicago locations and one in Wilmette, per Patch's report. The chain's reusable bowl program, which gives a free topping for every bowl a customer brings back, is a small but real cost-saver for anyone planning to make it a regular Wednesday-market stop.
Both offer quick, reliable options that make it easier to build a full evening around something like a Thursday night at the velodrome, a stop for dinner on the way, a walk to the track, an hour standing at the rail watching 200 riders do something most of the neighborhood has never seen up close.
The Season Isn't Over
Northbrook Days will always be the week everyone remembers, and it should be. The money it raises does real work for scholarships and community grants that outlast the five days themselves. Alongside Northbrook Days, the velodrome offers another summer attraction: a state-championship-caliber bike track, built in 1963, hosting races on most Thursday nights. The carnival comes back next August. The velodrome comes back most weeks until the season ends. Both offer distinct ways to experience Northbrook's summer.
If you're weighing what comes next for your own place in Northbrook, whether that's staying put and getting more out of the town you already know or thinking through a move within it, Maria Thanasouras has spent more than three decades helping neighbors across Chicago and Wisconsin make that call with a clear head. Let's Connect.
