Cracking the Lid on a Bottomless Music Festival by R
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Cracking the lid on a bottomless music festival By R he Department of Cultural A airs and Special requiring proof of vaccination or a recent negative communities. Events (DCASE) originally planned to cele- COVID test for entry. If you’re going to a concert, Music brings people together unlike any other art brate the Year of Chicago Music in 2020. Then check with the venue fi rst to learn its current policy. form, but COVID-19 continues to make it complicated the pandemic diminished those festivities to Celebrating the Year of Chicago Music in 2021 is to gather. Breakthrough infections in vaccinated peo- the point that the city declared 2021 the Year certainly safer than it would’ve been in 2020, and ple are a minuscule fraction of new cases, but seeing Tof Chicago Music too. DCASE has declared a citywide monthlong festival live music necessarily carries at least a small risk. The ongoing surge of the Delta variant means the called Chicago in Tune that runs from Thursday, Au- It’s up to you to decide what you can tolerate: Packed U.S. won’t be rid of the pandemic this year. The New gust 19, till Sunday, September 19. None of the city’s into a club, or standing on your own in a park? In any York Times COVID-19 tracker says at least 620,000 usual downtown festivals is happening this year, but case, please bear in mind the danger you could pose to Americans have died of the virus, and that number DCASE will honor Chicago’s rich musical heritage everyone else, especially kids and others who can’t be will keep growing as the unvaccinated remain on the with plenty of programming at Pritzker Pavilion and vaccinated—get your shots, wear a mask, and encour- fence about a “personal choice” that a ects everyone. in other parks. Chicago in Tune also includes for- age people in your life to follow suit. In Cook County, 60 percent of residents ages 12 and profi t festivals such as Ruido Fest, the Lyrical Lemon- The Reader’s guide to Chicago in Tune includes up are fully vaccinated, which mitigates but doesn’t ade Summer Smash, the Pitchfork Music Festival, and interviews with people in di erent parts of the local eliminate the danger to public health. Riot Fest. scene, essays on genres with deep roots in the city, Chicago officially reopened June 11, and with it In fact, Chicago in Tune includes every concert in and a dozen curated lists of concerts. For information live music began a gingerly return. The city’s music every venue in the city for a month. It’s more a name on shows not included here, visit Do312’s Chicago in venues—where artists, fans, and live production than an event, and it’s an exhaustively inclusive Tune concert calendar. And however you decide to professionals convene for a few magical, impossible- name—which means this Reader guide couldn’t pos- celebrate, make safe choices so that everybody who to-replicate hours—have largely begun hosting shows sibly be complete. Instead it provides an entryway to can bask in the glory of live music will still have the again. In response to the Delta variant, most are the thrilling depth and diversity of the city’s music chance to do it tomorrow. v ll AUGUST - CHICAOREADER/CHICAGOINTUNE 1 PICTURED: Just a few of the 50 sites selected for the project. of the 50 sites selected for PICTURED: Just a few MUSIC LIVES HERE Delmark Records a multi-media project by Chicago graphic art studio Tania’s Sonnenzimmer and Maya The Earl of Old Town Bird-Murphy of Chicago Mobile Makers, will pay tribute to the spaces, places, Lyon & Healy Harp and people that have shaped Chicago’s music Chess Records landscape, past and present. Graphic markers, website, WVON Trax Records performances and more Muddy Waters’ House launch August 29. #YEAROFCHICAGOMUSIC Blvd Art Center Willie Dixon’s Yambo Records Curtom Rccords Loop Roller Disco www.MusicLivesHere.site Mendell Hall 2 CHICAOREADER/CHICAGOINTUNE - AUGUST ll AMBERHUFF and concerts into the online space, helping folks learn salsa, swing, and line dancing local for-profi t and nonprofi t venues to apply wherever they were. Millennium Park at for $10,000 slices of a $1.2 million pie. “We Home replaced Pritzker Pavilion’s eclectic in- were able to make awards to over 100 organi- person shows with online sets from the likes zations,” Kelly says. “Was it enough? No, but it of alt-country veteran Jon Langford and South helped keep everyone afl oat.” Asian soul-fusion artist Zeshan B. That initiative went public two months “In all this, we were just trying to hire local, after DCASE announced the recipients of get some money to musicians, put musicians its 2020 CityArts Program grants, which in front of an audience,” Kelly says. “I think distributed $2 million among 191 nonprofit our viewership was over a half a million, which arts organizations. The National Endowment is not a small number when there was a hell for the Arts chipped in too, providing DCASE of a lot of competition for eyeballs.” In the with $250,000 as part of the CARES Act. The fall, DCASE also partnered with the Chicago CityArts grants were split into two categories: Independent Venue League on CIVLization, general operating grants ranging from $2,000 a virtual concert series that benefited local to $30,000 (35 of which went to music orga- concert halls, their sta , and the artists who nizations), and special project grants aligned played in them. with the Year of Chicago Music, which ranged Supporting local musicians during the from $2,500 to $56,200. (Full disclosure: pandemic also meant helping them plan for the Reader received a special project grant.) what might come after the crisis. In April Among the recipients are classical music 2021, DCASE opened applications for Chicago school Access Contemporary Music, urban- Presents through the Arts77: Arts Recovery arts youth-development program Kuumba Plan. Two rounds of recipients have been Lynx, and the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic. announced, and the department has so far DCASE also helped artists one at a time, and supported 52 cultural events taking place be- last year’s Individual Artists Program grants tween early July and the end of October with came through right when they needed to; the grants of anywhere from $5,000 to $30,000. How DCASE helped Chicago music city announced the grantees at the beginning “We realized that in order to do this safely, of April, just weeks into the pandemic. DCASE these might have to be micro-outdoor live bestowed grants on more than 160 artists to in-person events,” says DCASE performing survive the pandemic shutdown help them complete a specifi c piece of work. arts program director Mariam Thiam. “That “In a typical year, about 20 musicians would involves permitting, either with the city or The Department of Cultural Aff airs and Special Events couldn’t present many receive awards,” Kelly says. “But in the Year of the parks, depending on the location, and events, but it found lots of other ways to support artists and venues. Chicago Music, we got a lot more music appli- so we have to structure it so that people un- cations.” Nearly 60 musicians received grants derstood they have to have a COVID plan in By R ranging from $850 to $5,000, including trans place—all these things that are really new for pop singer-songwriter Ellie “SuperKnova” presenters.” Kim, euphoric rapper Clinton “ShowYouSuck” DCASE and its volunteers on the Year of Sandifer, jazz saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi, Chicago Music steering committees have and multidisciplinary composer and perform- been scrambling to confront the pandemic for hen COVID-19 swept the country, COVID-19 of course threatened not just ven- er Ayanna Woods. almost a year and a half now, and all their tin- music venues were among the fi rst to ues but also the fan and artist ecosystems they “We also for the fi rst time had our Esteemed kering and retooling began to bear fruit when Wshutter, throwing tens of thousands of foster and the people who form those com- Artist Awards,” Kelly says. “These are $10,000 local clubs started inviting local musicians live entertainment professionals out of work munities. Chicago’s Department of Cultural awards, and seven musicians in 2020 received back onto their stages a few months ago. If and sidelining artists who depend on touring A airs and Special Events (DCASE) did its part that award.” Only 13 people received this you’ve been going to shows at all, you’ve prob- income. The National Independent Venue As- to help the local arts community through this highly prized DCASE grant, and the seven mu- ably seen one organized by a DCASE grant re- sociation formed in April 2020 and currently era-defining turbulence—which fell during sicians among them were more than worthy: cipient or featuring a musician who’s recorded represents more than 3,000 performance what was intended to be the Year of Chicago jazz vocalist Dee Alexander, Radio Free Hon- with the department’s help. And if by chance halls, promoters, and festivals; it’s done Music. “The fi rst thing we wanted to do—and duras founder and guitarist Charlie Baran (aka you haven’t, you’ll have plenty of chances to much of the heavy lifting during the push for it surely wasn’t just for musicians, but with Carlos Barahona), blues veteran Katherine change that during the month of Chicago in government fi nancial support of these crucial a special emphasis in the Year of Chicago Davis, Dolly Varden bandleader Steve Dawson, Tune.