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

Joyful summertime pleasures and treasures are previously in the air! Throughout the United States, our peak pageant season kicks off now. In Chicago — a mecca of new music, food stuff, consume, crafts, artwork, dance — its 2022 outside merrymaking has shifted into mega-substantial gear. In excess of the up coming 3 months, additional than a rating of big situations, as well as dozens of community fairs and festivities, salute the Windy City’s colossal cultural and culinary talents. It can be happily head-spinning to select from so quite a few spirit-soaring goings-on, must-see greats and absolutely free entertaining. Check Decide on Chicago for a energetic line-up, as very well as other helpful vacation-arranging details. Presented by the Chicago Section of Cultural Affairs and Unique Gatherings, the full agenda is at MillenniumPark.org. Here’s the lowdown on a handful of preferred highlights.

Chicago Blues Competition

Chicago Blues Competition (June 9 to 12). Where by: The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, as perfectly as at different community stages. Finest Bets: This citywide blues-boost is the most significant admission-cost-free blues accumulating in the earth, hailing Chicago’s blues-born legacy. Applaud a luminous assemblage of masterful musicians, these kinds of as Billy Branch & The Sons of Blues, Eric Gales (also recognised as Raw Dawg), Grady Winner, Joanna Connor, Rico McFarland, The Kinsey Report, The Mike Wheeler Band, Thornetta Davis and Toronzo Cannon. On every single of the four times, a distinctive tribute theme is also unfurled, cheering the accomplishments of unique artists: Erwin Helfer and The Boogie Woogie Ensemble, Bob Stroger & Mates, Chicago Soul and Females in Blues.

Grant Park New music Festival

Grant Park Tunes Pageant (June 15 to August 22). Where by: The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park seated ticket expenses, as effectively as cost-free places available. Most effective Bets: Just say, “Wow!” This astounding application uplifts aplenty and has been heralded as a transformative arts extravaganza. It showcases stunning classical items, this kind of as Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Magnificence and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2, as nicely as well known modern day alternatives at the Independence Working day Salute and Lights on Broadway. Its Cirque Goes to Hollywood spotlights stay aerialists attaining incredible feats higher than the stage.

Millennium Park Summer Tunes Series

Millennium Park Summer Audio Sequence (June 20 to August 18). Where by: The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park absolutely free. Very best Bets: Get set to get enthusiastic by the rousing roster of American and worldwide artists, these 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 flair reaped from all-around the earth Cimafunk, an Afro-Cuban voice who deftly mixes funk with Cuban new music and African rhythms Abigail Washburn, an Illinois-born, Nashville-based mostly singer-songwriter and clawhammer banjo participant Jeff Tweedy, an American songwriter and musician, most effective known 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 Indigenous American Songs Award winner.

Chicago SummerDance

Chicago SummerDance (July 6 to September 17). Where: Pop-up happenings downtown and citywide absolutely free. Ideal Bets: This beloved sequence, steered by experienced dance instructors, teaches attendees of all ages and skill-sets how to move out and stage in. Understand unforgettable moves: Afrobeat, Bachata, ballroom essentials, East Coastline swing, hula, line-dancing, kizomba, merengue, polka hop, salsa and far more. Assume tons of smiles and rhythmic revelry.

Style of Chicago

Taste of Chicago (July 8 to 10). The place: Grant Park alongside the Buckingham Fountain, that includes additional than 30 suppliers totally free admission. Greatest Bets: Meals galore! Leisure is on faucet, also: three phases with no cost tunes performances, such as Aterciopelados (a rock band from Colombia), Travel-By Truckers (an American rock band centered in Athens, Georgia) and Sadie Woods (Chicago artist and DJ) — as effectively as dance classes and household diversions. In addition, a collection of 3 Taste pop-up occasions unfold on consecutive Saturdays in the Chicago neighborhoods of Austin (June 11) with Caribbean bites, tacos, gumbo Pullman (June 18) with ribs, artisanal sandwiches, gourmet sausages and Tiny Village (June 25) with Mexican-design ice pops, mac & cheese, gazpacho, between other delish dishes.

Hearty appetites flock to this feast-a-thon, started in 1980. It fires up iconic Midwestern morsels as well as introduces impressive treats. Chicago’s bustling and extensive-ranging cafe scenes are represented, amongst them: Arun’s Thai Cafe, Auntie Vee’s Kitchen, Barangaroos Aussie Pies, BJ’s Marketplace & Bakery, Buona Beef, Chicago’s Doghouse, Churro Factory, Common Cobbler Baked Products Business, Connie’s Pizza, Cynthia’s Gumbo Convey, Decadent Flavor, Doom Road Eats, Eli’s Cheesecake Company, Esperanza Kitchen area Delights, Haire’s Gulf Shrimp, Nutritious Compound, Josephine’s Cooking, La Cocinita Meals Truck, Mr. Quiles Mexican Meals, Mr. E Chef Catering, Ms. Tittle’s Cupcakes, Primary Rainbow Cone, Key Tacos, Franco’s Ristorante, Robinson’s No.1 Ribs, Seoul Taco, Taco Chic, Tandoor Char Property, The Sole Ingredient Catering, Whadda Jerk and Yum Dum. Thirst-quencher reward: a beer corridor, wine tent and cocktail lounge.

“After an all-virtual Flavor in 2020 and local community pop-ups in 2021, we are thrilled to bring Style back again to Grant Park and back again into our neighborhoods in 2022,” says Division of Cultural Affairs and Distinctive Gatherings Commissioner Erin Harkey. “There’s something for everybody to appreciate at this year’s Style, all over the town.”