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(Image design by Bucktown Arts Fest Poster contest winner Sherry Scharschmidt)
Have any plans this weekend? Why not get a little more art in your life, AND give back to the community as well! This Saturday and Sunday, August 23-24, is the Bucktown Arts Fest. This non-profit, all volunteer-run, neighborhood celebration of the arts is void of corporate sponsorship and admission is free. However, all proceeds from the Fest go towards the funding and development of the arts and education programming at Holstein Park and within the local Bucktown/Wicker Park classrooms.
The fest showcases close to 200 artists, an eclectic mix of musicians, dancers, poets and performers and even offers a pub crawl. This year will mark its 29th year, and attracts more than 40,000 visitors annually. The fest is located at the Senior Citizen’s Park between Oakley and Lyndale Aves. in Bucktown.
For more information about the fest and how to get there, check out their main site.
By Falyn Freyman
When music, bicycles, and beer come together, it's summertime bliss. When you add philanthropy into the mix, it' even better.
Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing is known for its delicious craft beers and generally rad approach to sustainability, community-building, and giving back. Their annual Tour de Fat returns to Chicago this year for another free, daylong festival featuring a costumed bike parade, live bands and performers, contests, and of course, beer, with all proceeds and donations directly benefiting Humboldt Park non-profit West Town Bikes.
They had me at “pop-up cocktail bars”.
Yes, it’s time to welcome summer once more with the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, running from this Friday, June 28th through Sunday, June 30th, in lovely Logan Square. There will be bands you like, including a set by The Cairo Gang, whom The Chicago Reader recently christened the “Best Rock Band” in Chicago at 2pm on Saturday. Go to that. There will be food to enjoy as you mill about Milwaukee Avenue—the festival has terrific offerings from some of the best restaurants in the area, including Longman & Eagle, Lula, and newcomer Parsons Chicken & Fish. Who doesn’t enjoy eating off a paper plate and sucking down a grown-up beverage from a pop-up cocktail bar while checking out what the local arts scene has to offer? I know this gal does. Plus, CHIRP Radio will be there so come and say hello!
The festival runs Friday, 5pm-10pm, Saturday, noon-10pm, and Sunday, noon-10pm. There is a $5 suggested donation.
All of us at CHIRP feel honored and thrilled to have been selected as the recipient of Whole Foods 5% Day this Wednesday, June 26. All five Chicago Whole Foods stores are donating 5% of the day's profits to CHIRP, and I couldn't be happier — or hungrier. To prepare for the intense level of grocery shopping I'm going to do, I've neatly arranged all my reusable tote bags by the door, and I've planned out all the meals I'm going to make with my spoils. There's one dish I'm particularly excited to eat—it's a proven seasonal crowd-pleaser and stupid-easy to prepare, and most importantly: DELICIOUS AS ALL HECK.
Grab your tote bags, get out your shopping list and add to it the ingredients for Banh Mi Pork Burgers.
Craft beer. Eco-friendly vendors. Free bike parking. Craft beer (yes I said it twice). Live music. The quintessential Chicago summer festival. This weekend (June 22nd/23rd), Wicker Park will once again fence itself off from traffic and open it's gates for some great live music and environmentally-sustainable shopping.
The Green Music Fest, on Damen Ave. between North and Schiller, reflects the environmentally-conscious community it is located in, throwing local retailers, crafters, food vendors, and of course, beer brewers alongside some great live music. The festival's Green Initiative includes a mission to connect eco-conscious Chicagoans with these environmentally sustainable products and services, all the while giving the city the kind of weekend festival it has come to know and love. You'll find everything from biodiesel generators, compostable food service disposable items, and free bike parking.
The bands are nothing to scoff at either; with two stages and plenty of local acts, you can see anyone from Manchester Orchestra on Saturday to Talking Heads tribute band This Must Be The Band on Sunday (check the website for a full lineup). There's a $5 suggested donation, and festivities start both days at noon and end at 10 pm. Hop on your bike and head over!