Chicago: Free Concerts in Millennium Park (How To Get a Seat)
Millennium Park’s Blockbuster Week (pdf link) continues with some amazing offerings. It was really too bad that the remnants of Hurricane Gustav came through and drenched the free taping of NPR’s Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me last Thursday. Tonight’s Lyric Opera program is also in danger of receiving some rain, but I really hope it will pass us over.
As someone who has attended this particular event a couple of times, I’m amazed at how popular it has become. You just don’t think that tens of thousands of people will come out for free opera, but last year, the crowd overfilled the Great Lawn.
Unless you expect to get there very early to grab one of the actual seats, don’t worry too much about your particular spot on the lawn. You won’t be able to see anything anyways. People do talk and smoke on the surrounding sidewalks so if you are sensitive to that, a middle spot may be the best thing. The sound won’t be an issue.
If you really would like a seat to see the entire program, you’ll need to get there hours early. The line on the east side of the pavilion gets let in first—at about an hour and a half before the performance starts. The line starts forming well before that time of course.
Steppenwolf Theatre‘s crew presents its program on Monday night. The Joffrey Ballet dances on Thursday.
One other free concert to track is on September 25. Calexico performs. This group has really built up a strong following in Chicago. That should be a fun night.
Postscript added September 7: Don’t forget that a free concert is still a concert. The idiots right behind us must have thought a spontaneous picnic social somehow broke out because they decided it was alright to talk right over the program. Even when shushed, they still didn’t get it.