Rochester is a village and suburb of Springfield in Sangamon County, Illinois, United States.

Rochester is part of the Springfield, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Spanning three days, the event attracts not only the citizens of Rochester, but visitors from the surrounding areas as well.

Rochester is the southeastern end of the Lost Bridge Trail, a 5.0-mile (8.0 km) trail built by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) atop an abandoned railbed formerly used by the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) railroad.

Sugar Creek carries the outflow from Lake Springfield, a sizable nearby reservoir.

IDOT future plans include extending the trail to Taylorville, Illinois along the same railroad bed, and this was partly realized in a recent extension from the trail's original end at State Rte.

The PARCC is the new standard for the state and in the first year of testing 91.9% of all freshmen are on track to graduate (Illinois statewide is 82.4%) and in 2016 Rochester had an overall graduation rate of 99% (94% in 4 years) as compared to the state rate of 86%.

[6] Construction on a new wing to the high school began in July 2005, and was finished in August 2006.

The new auditorium was completed in time for the spring musical, The Wizard of Oz, in 2008.