Chicago’s Best Summer Outdoor Festivals: Fun Music, Food, Dance

Joyful summer pleasures and treasures are already in the air! Across the United States, our peak pageant time kicks off now. In Chicago — a mecca of music, foods, drink, crafts, artwork, dance — its 2022 outdoor merrymaking has shifted into mega-large gear. More than the future 3 months, additional than a rating of major functions, furthermore dozens of neighborhood fairs and festivities, salute the Windy City’s colossal cultural and culinary talents. It can be fortunately head-spinning to decide from so numerous spirit-soaring goings-on, should-see greats and absolutely free fun. Look at Pick Chicago for a energetic line-up, as effectively as other useful travel-setting up aspects. Presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Specific Gatherings, the complete routine is at MillenniumPark.org. Here’s the lowdown on a handful of favourite highlights.

Chicago Blues Competition

Chicago Blues Pageant (June 9 to 12). Wherever: The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, as very well as at different neighborhood phases. Most effective Bets: This citywide blues-raise is the most significant admission-free of charge blues accumulating in the environment, hailing Chicago’s blues-born legacy. Applaud a luminous assemblage of masterful musicians, these types of as Billy Department & The Sons of Blues, Eric Gales (also identified as Raw Dawg), Grady Winner, Joanna Connor, Rico McFarland, The Kinsey Report, The Mike Wheeler Band, Thornetta Davis and Toronzo Cannon. On each and every of the 4 times, a unique tribute concept is also unfurled, cheering the accomplishments of distinctive artists: Erwin Helfer and The Boogie Woogie Ensemble, Bob Stroger & Close friends, Chicago Soul and Gals in Blues.

Grant Park Songs Festival

Grant Park Songs Pageant (June 15 to August 22). Where by: The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park seated ticket expenses, as effectively as absolutely free spots obtainable. Greatest Bets: Just say, “Wow!” This astounding method uplifts aplenty and has been heralded as a transformative arts extravaganza. It showcases magnificent classical pieces, this sort of as Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2, as properly as preferred modern options at the Independence Day Salute and Lights on Broadway. Its Cirque Goes to Hollywood spotlights stay aerialists attaining outstanding feats over the phase.

Millennium Park Summer months Tunes Collection

Millennium Park Summer season Music Sequence (June 20 to August 18). Wherever: The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park no cost. Best Bets: Get set to get energized by the rousing roster of American and world artists, this kind of as DakhaBrakha, a folks-fusion quartet from Kyiv, Ukraine Femi Kuti, a Nigerian Afrobeat saxophonist the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra, a 12-piece ensemble expressing musical aptitude reaped from all over the world Cimafunk, an Afro-Cuban voice who deftly mixes funk with Cuban audio and African rhythms Abigail Washburn, an Illinois-born, Nashville-primarily based singer-songwriter and clawhammer banjo player Jeff Tweedy, an American songwriter and musician, ideal identified as the guitarist and singer of the band Wilco and Samantha Crain, from Oklahoma, a Choctaw singer-songwriter, poet and musician, who is a two-time Native American Songs Award winner.

Chicago SummerDance

Chicago SummerDance (July 6 to September 17). The place: Pop-up happenings downtown and citywide free of charge. Most effective Bets: This beloved series, steered by specialist dance instructors, teaches attendees of all ages and skill-sets how to move out and stage in. Discover unforgettable moves: Afrobeat, Bachata, ballroom basic principles, East Coast swing, hula, line-dancing, kizomba, merengue, polka hop, salsa and a lot more. Anticipate a lot of smiles and rhythmic revelry.

Taste of Chicago

Style of Chicago (July 8 to 10). Wherever: Grant Park alongside the Buckingham Fountain, showcasing far more than 30 suppliers totally free admission. Finest Bets: Foods galore! Enjoyment is on faucet, much too: 3 levels with absolutely free music performances, which include Aterciopelados (a rock band from Colombia), Travel-By Truckers (an American rock band dependent in Athens, Georgia) and Sadie Woods (Chicago artist and DJ) — as very well as dance periods and family diversions. In addition, a sequence of a few Style pop-up activities unfold on consecutive Saturdays in the Chicago neighborhoods of Austin (June 11) with Caribbean bites, tacos, gumbo Pullman (June 18) with ribs, artisanal sandwiches, connoisseur sausages and Minimal Village (June 25) with Mexican-fashion ice pops, mac & cheese, gazpacho, amid other delish dishes.

Hearty appetites flock to this feast-a-thon, established in 1980. It fires up iconic Midwestern morsels as very well as introduces revolutionary treats. Chicago’s bustling and wide-ranging restaurant scenes are represented, amongst them: Arun’s Thai Restaurant, Auntie Vee’s Kitchen area, Barangaroos Aussie Pies, BJ’s Current market & Bakery, Buona Beef, Chicago’s Doghouse, Churro Manufacturing facility, Vintage Cobbler Baked Merchandise Enterprise, Connie’s Pizza, Cynthia’s Gumbo Convey, Decadent Taste, Doom Street Eats, Eli’s Cheesecake Enterprise, Esperanza Kitchen area Delights, Haire’s Gulf Shrimp, Healthier Material, Josephine’s Cooking, La Cocinita Food items Truck, Mr. Quiles Mexican Foodstuff, Mr. E Chef Catering, Ms. Tittle’s Cupcakes, Unique Rainbow Cone, Key Tacos, Franco’s Ristorante, Robinson’s No.1 Ribs, Seoul Taco, Taco Sublime, Tandoor Char Property, The Sole Component Catering, Whadda Jerk and Yum Dum. Thirst-quencher bonus: a beer corridor, wine tent and cocktail lounge.

“After an all-virtual Style in 2020 and local community pop-ups in 2021, we are thrilled to carry Taste back to Grant Park and back into our neighborhoods in 2022,” suggests Division of Cultural Affairs and Particular Situations Commissioner Erin Harkey. “There’s anything for all people to take pleasure in at this year’s Style, throughout the city.”