The Tutus Did the Lighting: Swan Lake at the Harris
Four Acts and an Encore: Kelela at the Vic
Eight Apple Things and One Dumpling at Apple Fest 39
The World Music Festival Ran Ten Days and Charged Nothing
The Randolph Street Market Is Not on Maxwell Street
Twenty Years of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Still Free
Foster The People Closed Northerly Island for the Season
Elastic Arts Pairs Dancers With Improvisers in Avondale
Ground Floor Shows Who Will Matter in Chicago Art Next
Pilsen Open Studios Is Run by the Neighbourhood, Not a Landlord
Dancing the Revolution Gave the MCA a Sound System
Forty-Four Galleries Open at Once: Chicago Exhibition Week
Retro on Roscoe Turned Twenty-Five, So Nostalgia for What
Douglass Park After Riot Fest: “The Worst It’s Ever Been”
Ravinia Reopened Its Pavilion and Ran Ninety Concerts
Twenty-Seven Years of the Englewood Jazz Festival
Third Fridays Opens Two Art Centres on One Bridgeport Block
Liz Phair and Sleater-Kinney Co-Headlined the Salt Shed
Tove Lo Played an Unreleased Song at the Salt Shed
Printers Row Lit Fest Held the Street Where the Presses Were
The Ravenswood Art Walk Put the Studios Back in the Factories
El Grito Came Back to Grant Park and the Crowd Did Not
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A Seven-Year-Old Had a Stall at Maxwell Street in September
Renegade Craft Is Where Nobody Pretends to Be Looking
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Second Fridays Is the Only Free Art Night That Never Stops
“Crowning the Heritage” at the African Festival of the Arts
ARC Festival Went to Four Days and Union Park Showed the Seams
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Navy Pier Shot Fireworks Twice a Week and Nobody Mentions It
The Miles Electric Band Question at Chicago Jazz Festival
North Coast and the Labor Day Turf War in Bridgeview
Ye Played Two Homecoming Nights for Seventy Thousand
Taste of Greektown Is the Last Load-Bearing Wall
Panda Fest Put Pan-Asian Food on a Grant Park Field
Comfort Station Programmes a One-Room Building All Year
Thirty Dance Styles on SummerDance’s Free Floor in Grant Park
Edgewater Music Fest Booked Thirty-Five Original Acts
The Chicago House Music Festival Added a Conference and a Dance Summit
Black and Bronze Put a Clock on Its Own Front Gate
The Fray and Dashboard Confessional Split a Lakefront Bill
Lakeview Taco Fest, Four Miles and a World From Pilsen
Usher and Chris Brown Split Soldier Field for Two Nights
Villapalooza Booked Its Own Block in Little Village
Ricky Martin Made His Ravinia Debut at Fifty-Four
The Millennium Park Summer Film Series Puts Movies on the Lawn
The Air and Water Show Was Delayed Both Days and Nobody Left
Rogers Park Keeps Its Artists: The Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest
Ninety Years of the Grant Park Music Festival, Still Free
Kehlani Launched a World Tour and Janet Jackson Came to Watch
Chance Opened the Coloring Book Tour on the North Shore
Ginza Holiday and the History Under the Midwest Buddhist Temple
Ninety-Seven Years of Bud Billiken, Which Began With Newsboys
Market Days Put Ric Wilson on Halsted for Its 43rd Year
Foo Fighters, Sixty Thousand Deep, on a Saturday in August
Arrested Development Played a Free Monday in Millennium Park
The Chicago Italian Beef Festival Is Three Days for One Sandwich
Scissor Slam 2K26 and the Mud Year at Lollapalooza
The Bronzeville Smooth Jazz Festival and a Genre Critics Gave Up On
Ben Folds and Seventy Players at the Pritzker Pavilion
Forty-Two Years of Taste of Lincoln Avenue, Against the Odds
Under the Paifang: Chinatown’s 47th Summer Fair on Wentworth
Wicker Park Fest Is a Rearguard Action on Milwaukee Avenue
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Fiesta del Sol Ran Its 54th Year With Response Teams
Karol G Took Soldier Field for Two Nights in July
Ricky Dillard Came Home to a Free Stage in Millennium Park
Tacos y Tamales Was Built as a Mercado, Not a Food Court
Burger Fest, and the Tyranny of the Chicago Char
West Fest Put Twenty Hours of House on Chicago Avenue
Paul Simon Played Ravinia Twice in the New Pavilion
The Silver Room Block Party Traded 40,000 for 7,000
Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz Played a Sponsored Series on the Lake
Taste of Chicago Turned Over Almost Forty Percent of Its Kitchens
Billy Idol Brought Steve Stevens and Seven Players to Ravinia
Tyler Childers Sold Out Wrigley With a Jazz Bandleader Opening
Square Roots Is a Beer Festival Programmed by a Folk School
Windy City Smokeout Added a Wednesday in a Parking Lot
Lizzo Opened Ravinia’s New Hall by Shutting Up
John Mulaney Was the First Comedian to Play Wrigley Field
The Chosen Few Picnic at Thirty-Six, and the Year Juke Got a Slot
Bob Dylan Played His 48th Show of the Year on Northerly Island
Pride South Side Exists Because of the Map
4th on 53rd Did the Fourth of July With a Marching Band
The Logan Square Arts Festival and Its Grassroots Rival
Michelada Fest Came Back, and Gave Friday Away
Pride Turned Back Toward Protest on Broadway
Martin Garrix Took Northerly Island for Three Nights Running
The Gold Coast Art Fair Came to Butler Field for Its 68th Year
Taste of Randolph, on the Most Expensive Block in Chicago
Pride Fest and the Parade: Two Prides on Halsted, Nine Days Apart
Two Juneteenths, a Mile Apart, on Consecutive Days
The Old Town Art Fair Still Has the Better Garden Walk
Summer Smash, Fifty Thousand People, and a Riot That Did Not Happen
Midsommarfest Turned Sixty on a Street That Changed Around It
Puerto Rican Fest and the Steel Flags on Division Street
OK Go Fired Heart-Shaped Confetti Over Gallagher Way
Ribfest and the Blood Sport of Competitive Barbecue Judging
Blues Fest Opened Night One at the Ramova, Not the Loop
Seventy-Nine Years of the 57th Street Art Fair
Beyond Wonderland Rented the Best View in Chicago
Maifest, Oktoberfest, and What Lincoln Square Is Selling
Do Division Opened the Street-Fest Season on Algren’s Block
In Defence of the Tribute Band at Belmont-Sheffield
Five Years of Sueños on the Lakefront
Warm Love Cool Dreams Is What Chicago Built After Pitchfork
Lincoln Park Mayfest and the Question of Whether It Is Even Warm
The Cinco de Mayo Parade That Did Not Happen on 26th Street
The Bloom and the Beast: Springing Forward at the Zoo
The Architect of Dreams: Joe Hisaishi and the CSO’s Cinematic Alchemy
London’s Finest at the Salt Shed: Dave Brings the Harp to West Town
Barely Fair Puts Thirty Galleries in Dollhouse Booths
The Other Art Fair Sells Direct in a Ravenswood Warehouse
Neighbors, an Art Fair Staged in a Gold Coast Apartment
EXPO Chicago Refined Its Floor Plan and Found the Obama Center
The Pier’s Purge: Curatorial Clarity at EXPO Chicago 2026
Pilsen's Heavyweight Champion: Madison Cunningham and the Architecture of Ace
The Pier's High-Wire Act: Rigor Amidst the Riff-Raff
The Concrete Canvas: Finding the Pulse of 18th Street
The Quiet Intensity of Skullcrusher at Maurer Hall
The 360-Degree Victory Lap: TWICE at the United Center
Small Wonders: The Chaotic Magic of Trinket Fest
The Second Act of Lily Allen: A Night at The Auditorium
Green City Market & Clark St.
Matisse's Jazz: Rhythms in Color
Biscuits, Beets, and the Last Winter Hang
The Boys Are Back in Town: Twin Peaks and the Chicago DIY Mythos
The Human Aperture: Interrogating the Image at LENS 2026
The Michelangelo of Kitsch: Bruce Goff’s Material Insurgency