Name: Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago, other summer festivals canceled by city
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Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago, other summer festivals canceled by city

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AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneJun 09, 2020 at 3:28 pmSummer is over in Chicago before it even began.The city announced Tuesday it is canceling special events through Labor Day, including Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago, the Air and Water Show and the Chicago Jazz Festival to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. of its summer festivals devoted to gospel, blues and house music.AdvertisementFollowing the City and State guidelines for Phase 3, DCASE has announced a slate of more than 150 reimagined summer events that will include at-home dance parties, virtual concerts, farmers markets and community meals for frontline workers. — Chicago DCASE (@ChicagoDCASE)— Chicago’s largest music festival — typically draws 100,000 people to Grant Park for each of its four days, and it was said to be the highest revenue-generating event for the Chicago Park District last year. Festival promoter C3 Presents had not announced a lineup for the July 30-Aug. 2 event, and tickets were not for sale. More than 170 acts typically play Lollapalooza each year.“The reality is, bringing 100,000 people en masse, in close quarters, which is what the daily head count is every single day at Lollapalooza, bringing that many people from all over the country, downtown, in Grant Park, every single day, we might as well just light ourselves on fire. It makes no sense,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at a news conference Tuesday.AdvertisementLightfoot said a later date for Lollapalooza was considered “and that was part of the discussion and why we delayed for so long, but it became clear that that later date probably wasn’t going to get us out of the woods, far enough away from where we are in the cycle of COVID-19 here in Chicago. So we look forward to welcoming them back next year.”Lightfoot also said no money was exchanged between the Park District and C3 Presents for this year’s event. The Park District is guaranteed to get $1.5 million from C3 each year, even if Lollapalooza is not held, but the contract does have an allowance for Park District breach of contract.The Park District — which also gets a share of the admission, sponsorship, food and beverage revenue — will renew its contract with C3 Presents, Lightfoot said. The contract, inked in 2012, is due to expire next year. For their part, Lollapalooza organizers on Tuesday promised a “spectacular celebration” for next year.“We wish we could bring Lollapalooza to Grant Park again this year, but we understand why things can’t move forward as planned,” festival organizers said in a statement. “The health and safety of our fans, artists, partners, staff and community is always our highest priority.”Lollapalooza’s cancellation will be felt by hotels, restaurants and even more local businesses already having a tough year. Anderson Economic Group, a research and consulting firm with an office in Chicago, says the cancellation could result in 300 fewer jobs and more than $35 million in lost sales for Chicago businesses, an estimate that includes spending on lodging, food, retail goods and services.Organizers said they will instead offer a virtual event during what was supposed to be Lollapalooza weekend. They promise “performances from around the city and beyond” with a full schedule to come next month.“We’ve been at both (Taste and Lollapalooza) forever; we’re going to miss them,” said Marc Malnati, of Lou Malnati’s pizza. “I mean, it’s not a hobby — we sell a lot of pizza out there — but it doesn’t make or break our year. But they’re great exposure for marketing and our brand, and I love being out there. I love how the pizza tastes, when the humidity off the lake affects the dough. It’s untouchable.”The Taste of Chicago was scheduled for July 8-12 in Grant Park. The festival, which began as a one-day affair in 1980, is a summer staple that clocked more than 1 million visitors in 2019, according to the city. Eighty-plus eateries took part last year, and some 600 artists and performers were hired to entertain attendees. This year’s food and music lineups had not been announced.AdvertisementIn its place, the city announced “Taste of Chicago To-Go,” which is slated to include an expanded Community Eats program July 8–12 that would support about 25 neighborhood restaurants and food trucks while providing free meals to nonprofits serving healthcare and other front-line workers. The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events said it will also organize a food truck procession on July 8 and online cooking demos July 8–12.This is not the first time the Taste has been canceled. Then-mayor Harold Washington nixed the event in 1983, saying the city couldn't afford it without corporate sponsorship. Sponsors stepped up, and Taste resumed in 1984.“We always look forward to festivals, and we count on the extra money, and Taste is the largest one we’ve participated in over the years,” said John Meyer, chef/owner of BJ’s Market &amp; Bakery, a fixture at Taste as well as the Chow Town lineup at Lollapalooza. The Air and Water show was to take place Aug. 15-16 at North Avenue Beach. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds were slated to headline the popular weekend show that has been held on Chicago’s lakefront since 1959. The city estimates the event draws some 2 million spectators annually and is the largest and longest-running free air show of its kind in the country.The 42nd annual Chicago Jazz Festival was to have stretched from Aug. 28 through Sept. 6, the main events taking place the last four days at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. Though the schedule had not been announced, the festival famously casts a spotlight on revered and emerging Chicago artists, as well as visiting headliners. The loss of the Chicago Jazz Festival also carries symbolic weight, since this event gave rise to other city-sponsored music fests, including the Blues and Gospel Music Festivals.“Our primary goal, even before we knew as an organization what was going to happen, is of course the safety of everyone — the safety of our city, our musicians, our members,” said Heather Ireland Robinson, executive director of the Jazz Institute of Chicago, which programs the festival.Advertisement“And even though our wonderful mayor has opened up the city, and there are changes coming over the next week, in the last couple weeks we said, ‘Let’s make sure we’re safe, and let’s figure out all the ways to keep the music going and plan for a bit.’ And get ready for a great festival in 2021.”With the Chicago club scene reeling from the shutdown caused by the coronavirus, DCASE announced a series of about 20 live events featuring Chicago musicians performing at local clubs and other locations. These are planned to be in-person concerts broadcast to larger audiences.“We’re going to emphasize virtual, but I think there will be some opportunities for small groups to gather at some of these events,” Lightfoot said.Jazz events would occur in August and September in place of the Chicago Jazz Festival. These events are being conceived now, according to sources. DCASE is envisioning these performances in consultation with the Jazz Institute, Constellation, Jazz Showcase, the Hungry Brain and other venues.“It hurts,” said Orbert Davis, artistic director of the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic. “There’s two sides of the Jazz Festival that make it phenomenal: hearing and seeing the music onstage, but also being a community of Chicago. It’s all Chicago celebrating our own, in a sense. So that (loss) is devastating.“But whatever we have to do to keep the music alive, we have to do greater than we’ve ever done before, with the hopes of it coming back again. If we keep that hope, it will come back stronger than ever.”AdvertisementRiot Fest organizers have not made an announcement about their event, scheduled for Sept. 11-13 in Douglas Park on the West Side. Organizers announced in January that My Chemical Romance would headline, but the rest of the lineup has not been revealed. Three-day passes have been on sale for months.The Pitchfork Music Festival was supposed to be held July 17-19 in Union Park. Three days after the Illinois stay-at-home order for coronavirus began March 21, a Pitchfork representative applied for a permit for the festival to occur in Union Park from Aug. 21-23, according to paperwork obtained from a Freedom of Information Act request to the Park District.Pitchfork was canceled in early May, and the proposed August date was not publicly announced. A festival spokeswoman did not return a Tribune request for comment.Chicago Tribune journalists Howard Reich, Doug George, Ariel Cheung and Phil Vettel contributed to this report. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneJun 09, 2020 at 3:28 pmSummer is over in Chicago before it even began.The city announced Tuesday it is canceling special events through Labor Day, including Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago, the Air and Water Show and the Chicago Jazz Festival to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. of its summer festivals devoted to gospel, blues and house music.AdvertisementFollowing the City and State guidelines for Phase 3, DCASE has announced a slate of more than 150 reimagined summer events that will include at-home dance parties, virtual concerts, farmers markets and...

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Tracy Swartz

The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are named), it remains the most-read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. It had the 6th highest circulation for American newspapers in 2017.

Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago, other summer festivals canceled by city

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