10 Chicago Tribune | Life+Travel | Section 6 | Sunday, August 11, 2019 C

NEWS TO USE Park on the lakefront, the

event includes many

Catch go-kart musical acts, dancing

and a marketplace with
handmade crafts and food.
There will also be

racing action
By Phil Marty
Chicago Tribune
Here are some of the more
interesting events, deals,
websites and other travel
tidbits that have come
across our desk recently:
■ The Xtream Rock Island
Grand Prix, billed as the
world’s largest go-kart
street race, comes to the
downtown streets of Rock
Island, Ill., on Aug. 31 and
Sept. 1. Karts will race at
speeds approaching 100
mph both days, and there
will be racing by vintage
karts from before 1984.
There will also be vendor
booths, live music, family
activities and more.
www.rockislandgrand
prix.com
■ The Forest Preserve
District of Will County will
host a free Hummingbird
Festival & Nature Celebra-
tion on Aug. 17 at Plum
Creek Nature Center in
Beecher. You can sign up to
watch hummingbird band-
ing, and there will be a live
monarch butterfly exhibit.
tinyurl.com/humming
birdfest
■ Sample beer and soak up
the natural surroundings
during the third annual
Great Outdoors Beer Trail
at Fel-Pro RRRConserva-
tion Area in Cary. The
Aug. 17 event features hik-
ing a milelong paved trail
while visiting regional craft
brewers along the route.
There will also be live
music and food trucks.
Tickets can be purchased
online. tinyurl.com/
outdoorsbeertrail
■ Quilting fans will want to
head to Grand Rapids,
Mich., on Aug. 21-24 for the
American Quilter’s Society
QuiltWeek Show. Hun-
dreds of quilts will be on
display, and there will be
workshops, vendors selling
craft supplies and more.
tinyurl.com/quiltweek
■ The Festival of Nations
celebrates a variety of cul-
tures Aug. 24-25 at Tower
Grove Park in St. Louis.
Activities include dance
lessons from different
countries, world sports,
music performances, arti-
san displays, international
food and a world bazaar.
www.festivalofnations
stl.org
■ The fudge from Mack-
inac Island, Mich., is belov-
Xtream Rock Island Grand Prix street race heats up the Quad Cities Aug. 31 and Sept. 1.
ed by many. Fans can show
their appreciation during
the annual Mackinac Island
Fudge Festival. This year’s
version is Aug. 23-25 and
includes fudge-making
demonstrations and tast-
ings, fudge-infused cock-
tails, a kids’ fudge egg hunt
and a Fudge Ball.
tinyurl.com/macfudge
■ Music and eats are the
stars Aug. 16-17 during the
annual Madison Ribberfest
BBQ & Blues on the banks
of the Ohio River in Madi-
son, Ind. There will be pro,
amateur and kids barbecue
LORI BIEHL PHOTOGRAPHY/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
competitions as well as
riverboat rides. The blues
music will flow Friday
night and Saturday after-
noon and evening and will
include headliner Tommy
Castro and the Painkillers
with special guest Magic
Dick. www.madison
ribberfest.com
■ Blues & Brews on 66 will
be held from 4-9 p.m.
Aug. 17 in downtown Joliet.
There will be beer tastings
from area breweries, music
from local blues musicians
and a variety of food ven-
dors. Tickets can be pur-
chased online or the day of
the event. www.blues
andbrewson66.com
■ More than 60 breweries
will be offering up beer,
wine, mead and cider dur-
ing Suds on the Shore,
Aug. 17 in downtown Lud-
ington, Mich. There will
also be live entertainment
and food available. Pro-
ceeds benefit United Way
of Mason County.
www.sudsontheshore.com
■ Get a taste of Mexico on
Aug. 23-25 at Mexican
Fiesta in Milwaukee. Held
at Henry Maier Festival
cultural exhibits.
www.mexicanfiesta.org
■ The Wisconsin Highland
Games will be held Aug. 30
to Sept. 1 in Waukesha.
Athletes will compete in
Scottish and Irish games,
and there will be piping
and drumming competi-
tions, Highland dancing,
sheep and duck herding,
cultural exhibits and tradi-
tional pub fare.
tinyurl.com/y6lpj3fw
■ More than 100 varieties
of Indiana wines will be
available to try at the Swiss
Wine Festival, Aug. 22-25 in
Vevay. There will also be
craft beers, riverboat
cruises, live music, food
trucks and more.
www.swisswinefestival.org
Deals and websites listed
here have been checked for
availability as of press time.
Listings are not endorse-
ments. Send tips at least a
month in advance to Chi-
cagoTribTravel@gmail.com.
Phil Marty is a freelancer.
GEOQUIZ ANSWER
Indonesia. It’s the third
largest island in the country
and is southwest of the
Malay Peninsula.

What’s the safest seat on a plane? Airline answers — then apologizes

By Hannah Sampson
Washington Post
Just what you always
wanted to hear from an
airline: advice on how to
pick your seat based on
fatality rates.
The regional Twitter
account for Dutch airline
KLM in India, @KLMIn-
dia, recently put out a tweet
as a follow-up to a trivia
question about which seats
are the safest on a plane.
GETTY “According to data stud-
The regional Twitter account for KLM in India recently ies by Time, the fatality rate
raised eyebrows offering advice on the safest place to sit. for the seats in the middle
of the plane is the highest,”
the tweet said. “However,
the fatality rate for the seats
in the front is marginally
lesser and is least for seats
at the rear third of a plane.”
It featured an image of a
lone seat perched on a
fluffy cloud with the words:
“Seats at the back of a plane
are the safest!” The com-
pany deleted the tweet
about 12 hours after posting
following an email from
The Washington Post and
later tweeted an apology.
Officials with the airline
were not immediately
available to discuss the
strategy behind the tweet,
which bore the hashtags
#TuesdayTrivia and #Facts.
Time magazine pub-
lished an article in 2015
making the case that middle
seats in the back of a plane,
specifically, had the highest
survival rate (28%), based
on a study of accidents
dating to 1985. Generally,
regarding broad sections of
the plane, “the analysis
found that the seats in the
back third of the aircraft
had a 32 percent fatality
rate, compared with 39
percent in the middle third
and 38 percent in the front
third,” the magazine said.
But the Federal Aviation
Authority would quibble
with the #Facts assertion.
“Many people have tried
and failed to produce a
scientifically defensible
answer to this question,”
FAA communications
manager Lynn Lunsford
said in an email. “There are
too many variables, and this
is the important one — so
few accidents — that a
simple answer is probably
not statistically defensible.”

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