By Bill Mayeroff, bmayeroff@qconline.com.

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Chuck Van Blair has been going to the Milan Indian Summer Festival since he was a kid.

"It's a nice atmosphere," Mr. Van Blair said. "A lot of people come in from the little bitty towns."

This year, Mr. Van Blair will be doing more than just going to the festival, which runs today through Sunday at Dickson Park. He is in charge of advertising and the parade for the 50th festival.

"We invited all the past (festival) queens to come back," Mr. Van Blair said. "Quite a few past queens are going to be in the parade."

In addition to past festival queens, the parade will also feature floats, Cub Scouts, bands from Rock Island, Rockridge, and Sherrard high schools and an 18-wheeler that appeared on Country Music Television's show "Trick My Truck." Mr. Van Blair has not seen the truck, which is owned by Darlene Swift of Taylor Ridge, but is looking forward to it being in the parade.

"I guess it's supposed to be beautiful," Mr. Van Blair said.

But Ms. Swift is not sure she will be there in time for the parade. At 3:30 p.m. yesterday, she was in her truck, crossing into Reno, Nev. after departing Tracy, Calif.

"I'm late getting out of California," Ms. Swift said.

Though Ms. Swift was about 1,750 miles from Milan with less than 48 hours before the parade, she thinks there's still a chance she will be back in time.

"I'm going to stay with it all night," she said.

The event, Mr. Van Blair said, takes about six months to plan, but that it's a fairly easy process.

"It goes pretty smooth because we've been doing the same thing for years," he said.

Friday

Opening ceremony - 6 p.m.

Queen Pageant Talent show - 6:15 p.m.

Lil' Miss Pageant, "Pee Wee" division - 7 p.m.

Live music by Crossroads in beer garden - 7:30-11:30 p.m.

Festival grounds close - midnight

Saturday

Parade through downtown Milan - 10:30 a.m. (in case of rain, parade will be Sunday at noon)

Festival opens - noon

Bingo - 2 p.m.

Lil' Miss Pageant, "Lil' Miss" and "Jr. Miss" divisions - 6 p.m.

Live music by Gray Wolf in Beer Garden - 7:30-11:30 p.m.

Festival grounds close - midnight

Sunday

Festival opens - noon

Bingo - 1 p.m.

Baby contest winners announced - 4 p.m.

Introductions of past festival queens - 5 p.m.

Queen crowning pageant - 6 p.m.

Live music by Dani Lynn Howe in Beer Garden - 8-11:30 p.m.

Festival ground close - midnight