By: Ashmar Mandou

The City announced the return of summer cultural events as part of its “Open Chicago” initiative that kicked off a few weeks ago. Summer cultural events for Chicago residents and visitors alike will include a variety of activities. Music lovers will get a chance to experience “Chicago In Tune,” a new citywide festival celebrating Chicago’s diverse and legendary music scene and the 2021 Year of Chicago Music, as well as concerts at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion featuring the 2021 season of Grant Park Music Festival. Fans of dance will enjoy performances in Millennium Park by American Ballet Theatre presented by the Auditorium Theatre, Dance for Life presented by Chicago Dancers United, and partake in neighborhood-based Chicago SummerDance lessons and live music. All summer events will adhere to the latest public health and safety guidelines. 

“Chicago’s arts landscape has been devastated by the pandemic. We all must do our part to support the recovery of this vital sector, which is so necessary to our economy and our sense of belonging,” said DCASE Commissioner Mark Kelly. “I am also excited to know that the arts will be on the leading edge of the city’s reopening as our music clubs, theaters, and festivals come back to life and energize Chicago. There is so much to be excited about as the arts return. During this Year of Chicago Music, our “Chicago In Tune” festival will emerge as a joyous month-long celebration of Chicago’s amazing music scene. Our Chicago Presents and Chicago Band Roster programs will animate our entire city with music, theater, and dance. The arts may have suffered greatly, but the arts will also bring us back into the public realm.”  City residents can expect many exciting summer events and cultural activities across Chicagoland — including Open Parks and Open Streets events announced last week, new Millennium Park and other DCASE programming including:  

• The return of Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts at Symphony Center including “Fanfare” opening on May 27 

• Pivot Arts Festival: Reimagining Utopia – A Performance Tour: Live, Multi-Arts Experience from May 21 – June 5 

• Chicago Latino Theater Alliance – Sola en la pandemia está cañón at Joe’s on Weed Street on June 19 

• Goodman Theatre – School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play reopening in August  

• Court Theatre – Othello from July 8 – August 8 

• Southport Art Fair on July 10 & 11 

• Smart Museum of Art – Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40 on view July 15 – December 19 

• Hyde Park Jazz Festival on September 25 & 26 

• Lyric Opera of Chicago 2021/22 season including opening night featuring an all-new production of Verdi’s Macbeth on September 17  

• Broadway In Chicago – Six at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place running October 5, 2021 – January 30, 2022