Bring the music lovers in your family to the 40th annual Chicago Jazz Festival August 24-September 2 and stay at the nearby and affordable Best Western Plus Chicago Hotel at Hillside!
The Chicago Jazz Festival is one of the premiere music events in the entire world! The festival, presented in several venues in and around Grant Park, brings together living jazz greats and pays homage to the legends that have passed! Known for its artistic creativity, the Chicago Jazz Festival is a favorite Labor Day Weekend tradition. It promotes awareness and appreciation for all forms of jazz through free, quality live musical performance. Since 1979, the festival’s mission is to showcase Chicago’s vast jazz talent alongside national and international artists to encourage and educate a jazz audience of all ages.
Here are highlights of this year’s Chicago Jazz Festival:
Headliners: Orbert Davis’ Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, Kurt Elling, Diane Reeves, and Ramsey Lewis. Plus: Geof Bradfield Nonet, Nicole Mitchell and Mandorla Awakening, Junius Paul Quartet, Quin Kirchner Quartet, Chris Speed Trio, Sabertooth Organ Quartet, Louis Hayes Quintet, Kenny Barren Quintet, Darcy James Williams Secret Society, Arturo O’Farrell Sextet, Macio Parker, and man, many more!
The Chicago Jazz Festival was born when composer/bandleader Duke Ellington died in the summer of 1974. Just a few weeks later, several dozen Chicago musicians held a festival to honor him, at the old bandshell at the south end of Grant Park. Ten thousand music lovers came, marking the first of what would become annual memorial concerts that drew crowds of up to 30,000.
Millennium Park is located at 201 East Randolph Street between the Loop and Lake Michigan. The Chicago Jazz Festival will be presented rain or shine. For times, days and the full schedule of events, go online to https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/ en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_jazz_festival.html/ and follow the prompts.
Best Western Plus Chicago Hotel at Hillside, just a stone’s throw from the Chicago Jazz Festival, provides free shuttle service to and from O’Hare Airport in Chicago. The hotel offers affordable, comfortable rooms, a breakfast bar and restaurant and much more. The hotel is pet friendly and offers AAA rates.