The Taste of Chicago, one of the city's most popular summer events, will take place in its longtime home - Grant Park - in 2023, but not in its typical July timeslot.
This year's event will take place over three days, as was the case in 2022, but in other recent years, the festival lasted a total of five days. Instead of occurring in early- to mid-July, the festival will take place from Friday, Sept. 8 to Sunday, Sept. 10, according to the city of Chicago.
City officials included the announcement in the release of its official list of 2023 summer festivals, saying "Moving this iconic event to the tail end of summer will prolong our vibrant festival season and spur additional tourism and economic activity downtown."
With the schedule at Grant Park already packed this summer and a NASCAR race shutting down the event's normal home, officials last week blasted an apparent plan to move the festival to Navy Pier. The city said, at the time, that it intended to hold the Taste of Chicago, despite it not being on the calendar of events at Grant Park this summer. However, neither a location or firm dates had been announced at that point.
Both Ald. Brendan Reilly, of the city's 42nd Ward, and Ald. Brian Hopkins, whose second ward covers parts of Streeterville and Old Town, blasted Mayor Lori Lightfoot for her actions in greenlighting the planned NASCAR race, as well as her administration’s seeming insistence on having the Taste on the same weekend.
“It means all that traffic to Navy Pier for the Taste of Chicago is going to go on Illinois and Grand, two streets that run through a neighborhood,” Reilly said. “They’re not designed for that kind of traffic volume.”
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