CHICAGO — While there’s no official word on Lollapalooza (July 30-Aug. 2) and the Pitchfork festival (July 17-19), Chicago music lovers got the bad news May 4 that the Grant Park Music Festival, which had been set to run from June 20-Aug. 15, will be cancelling for 2020. A week earlier, the Ravinia Festival, which runs from June through September in Highland Park, IL, was canceled in its entirety for 2020.
The cause, of course, is the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are devastated that we will not be able to move forward with our 2020 season,” said Paul Winberg, the Grant Park Music Festival’s president and CEO, in a prepared statement. “The Festival has been a mainstay of the city’s performing arts landscape since 1935, when it was created to bring Chicagoans together during the Great Depression.” The Ravinia festival is even older, staged annually since 1905.
Along with some 250 scheduled events, the loss of the Grant Park Music Festival pulls the plug on much-anticipated events like the Independence Day Salute. Gone, too, are the festival’s chamber music programs, recitals, master classes and open rehearsals, and also various programs in neighborhood parks.
