Hamilton Primary School Festival Offers Weekend-Long Fun For 43rd Year
Proceeds from long-running festival help fund restoration of the first free and integrated school in Illinois.
OTTERVILLE – A full weekend of fun awaits area families and history fans looking to support a historic local landmark.
The 43rd annual Hamilton Primary School Festival returns this Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, and Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, to the school grounds at 107 E. Main St. in Otterville. Festival hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
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Attendees can expect food, games, a bounce house, live entertainment, tours of the school building and more. The festival will also feature a veterans tribute, bake-off competition, a cake walk, raffle drawings and a variety of craft vendor booths.
To register for the bake-off, call or text 618-535-0342. Entries including homemade breads and pastries, cookies, cakes and pies are due by 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 2026, for judging, with the auction starting at 1 p.m. in the Hamilton Primary School basement.
An outdoor church service will also be held the morning before the festival opens on Sunday. The service will start at 10:30 a.m. at the Otterville Baptist Church.
The festival is free to attend and open to all, with 100% of the event proceeds going directly towards the ongoing restoration of the historic school building.
Built in 1873, Hamilton Primary School was the first-ever free and integrated school in Illinois and one of the first such schools in the United States. The school was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
For more information about this year’s Hamilton Primary School Festival, see the festival’s official Facebook page or the event page on Riverbender.com.
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