Civil and Municipal - Mar 2023

109 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 3 HIGHLAND, I LL INOIS One of the features of Highland is the fact that its citizens are very giving and are invested in the community, says Mayor Kevin Hemann. It is a safe community with exceptionally low crime rates but benefits from being conveniently located right off Interstate 70 and just 30-45 minutes from St. Louis and the related big-city activities and events there. Yet Highland is home to many festivals and events in its own right each year. One of them is Schweizerfest, a festival held the second weekend in June at the downtown square with carnival rides, entertaining bands, drink, and food vendors, and parades on Saturday and Sunday evenings. The Highland Jaycees hosts this fundraiser. It hosts the Madison County Fair each July which is a week of intense fun for children and adults of all ages with carnival rides, livestock shows, musicians, 4-H exhibits, and pageants. The county fair’s arena features a different highlighted event each evening from a combine and demolition derby to a tractor pull and stock car races.