Choose Chicago is delighted to announce that Chicago has been selected to host the Democratic National Convention in August 2024. Following a historic 6th year consecutive win as Condé Nast Traveler’s “Best Big City,” Chicago's exciting new hotels, inventive restaurants, dynamic exhibitions, and eclectic festivals are just a taste of what’s in-store this summer season. 

Accommodations

The new Arlo Chicago opened in April 2023 (formerly the Hotel Julian). The 218-room hotel is located in a historic tower originally designed by famed Chicago architect Benjamin Marshall that once served as the Atlantic Bank Building. (Neighbourhood: The Loop)

The St. Regis Chicago is set to debut Summer 2023 as the 50th St. Regis globally. The 101-story St. Regis Chicago, designed by award-winning architect Jeanne Gang, has changed Chicago’s iconic skyline. It is now the third tallest building in Chicago, the 10th tallest in the United States, and the tallest building in the world designed by a female. The hotel will comprise the first 11 floors of the building, featuring 192 luxurious guest rooms, multiple signature dining options, a world-class St. Regis Spa, a fitness center, indoor pool and outdoor sunken terrace with scenic views. The hotel’s backyard is a botanical green space featuring a children’s play park, dog park, and attractive ornamental and water gardens. (Neighbourhood: The Loop)

Food + Libations

The prestigious James Beard Awards will be returning to Chicago to honour the best restaurants and chefs in America on June 5, 2023. The listof Chicago semifinalist contenders include: 

Smyth: Outstanding Restaurant 
Damarr Brown, Virtue: Emerging Chef
Khmai Cambodian Fine Dining: Best New Restaurant
Obélix: Best New Restaurant
Sepia: Outstanding Hospitality
All Together Now: Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
Diana Dávila Boldin, Mi Tocaya Antojería: Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2023
Thai Dang, HaiSous Vietnamese Kitchen: Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2023
Paul Fehribach, Big Jones: Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2023
Tim Flores and Genie Kwon, Kasama: Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2023
Zubair Mohajir, Wazwan: Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2023

Newly Open:

The Cauldron, a magic and wizard-themed restaurant and bar that brings fantasy to life through food and beverage spaces around the world, opened in Wicker Park this month. The restaurant fills the space of a former bank and boasts a ticketed and ever-evolving Potion-Making Experience in addition to other weekly programming. (Neighbourhood: Wicker Park)

Vegan cuisine is on the menu at Don Bucio’s Taqueria in Logan Square. James Beard Award-nominated chef Rodolfo Cuadros opened the plant-based restaurant in early 2023. (Neighbourhood: Logan Square)

Kindling | Downtown Cookout & Cocktails opened January 2023 inside the Catalog at Willis Tower. The live fire show kitchen restaurant is helmed by James Beard Award winner Jonathon Sawyer, formerly of the Four Seasons Hotel’s Adorn Restaurant & Bar. (Neighbourhood: The Loop) 

Michelin-star Chef Daniel Rose returned home after years in New York and abroad to open French restaurant, Le Select, in Chicago in January 2023. The menu features traditional French brasserie fare, showcasing the best ingredients and classic French techniques. (Neighbourhood: River North) 

The Oakville Grill & Cellar, a new restaurant designed to evoke the effortless ease of Napa Valley dining, opened April 2023. (Neighbourhood: Fulton Market) 

Opening Soon:

Diageo Beer Company will open the second location of its Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Chicago’s West Loop neighbourhood in Summer 2023. The location includes brewery tours, a taproom, outdoor patio space, and a restaurant. Some of the beers made on-site will only be available in Chicago. (Neighbourhood: West Loop)

After debuting Gordon Ramsay Burger in December 2021, celebrity chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay will pay homage to one of his popular TV shows with Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen. Set to open in River North in 2023, the two-story restaurant will be one of only a handful of locations in the U.S. and will include a few unique-to-Chicago, to-be-determined menu items. (Neighbourhood: River North) 

Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises has announced the following two restaurants that will open at the St. Regis Chicago hotel. The first restaurant, Miru (pronounced mē-rōō), will open in tandem with the hotel, and will showcase Executive Chef Hisanobu Osaka's unique take on Japanese cuisine. The second restaurant, Tre Dita (pronounced trā dē-tä), Italian for three fingers, is a nod to the thickness of a properly cut bistecca Fiorentina that the restaurant will be serving from its open-hearth wood fired grill. The Tuscan Steakhouse is in collaboration with award-winning Chef Evan Funke (Felix, Mother Wolf) and will open in 2023. (Neighbourhood: The Loop) 

Little Goat Diner, the newest location from James Beard Award-winning chef Stephanie Izard, will open its doors in Spring 2023. The menu features new takes on classic diner dishes like burgers, French toast, and chicken and dumplings. (Neighbourhood: Lakeview) 

Exhibitions (Immersive Art + Museums)

The Art Institute of Chicago has a full slate of spring/summer programming. Exhibition highlights include:  The Arranged Flower: Ikebana and Flora in Japanese Prints (Now -  July 9, 2023) - Ikebana is considered a form of Japanese high art, reflecting the principles of minimalism, asymmetry, and the appreciation of space; Van Gogh and the Avant-Garde: The Modern Landscape (Now - September 4, 2023) - More than 75 paintings and drawings - many from private collections and rarely publicly displayed - come together for this insightful presentation; Ellsworth Kelly: Portrait Drawings (July 1 - October 23, 2023) -  The drawings of Ellsworth Kelly show the impact of the artists he encountered during his travels in the 1940s, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse; and Remedios Varo: Science Fictions (July 29 - November 27, 2023) - The exhibition brings together more than 20 paintings created by Varo, a key figure in the Surrealist movement. This is the Art Institute's first solo exhibition dedicated to a woman Surrealist painter and to a woman artist working in Mexico.(Neighbourhood: The Loop)

Chicago History Museum’s exhibit Millions of Moments: The Chicago Sun-Times Photo Collection (until December 31, 2023) features 150 images from the Chicago History Museum’s Chicago Sun-Times. (Neighbourhood: Lincoln Park)

Cleve Carney Museum of Art and the McAninch Arts Center (MAC) at the College of DuPage will present Warhol: Featuring Andy Warhol Portfolios: A Life in Pop / Works from the Bank of America from June 3 - September 10, 2023. (Glen Ellyn, Illinois)

The Field Museum’s newest exhibition First Kings of Europe (open through January 28, 2024) features more than 700 exquisite objects from the Neolithic, Copper, Bronze, and Iron Ages. (Neighbourhood: South Loop / Museum Campus)

Harry Potter: Magic At Play extends its worldwide debut run in Chicago through September 4, 2023 at Water Tower Place. The first-of-its-kind experience allows fans to engage with the Wizarding World through hands-on magical interactivity including games, exploration, sensory activations, and more. (Neighbourhood: Magnificent Mile)

At the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) this summer, visitors can enjoy “Tuesdays on the Terrace” from June 13 - August 29, 2023. This free summer concert series on the MCA’s Anne and John Kern Terrace Garden, highlights artists from Chicago’s music community, incorporating hip-hop, house, blues, bomba, and more. (Neighbourhood: Streeterville)

WNDR Museum, Chicago’s original immersive art and technology experience, opened May 12, 2023, with a three story immersive infinity installation by the globally iconic, Yayoi Kusama. Dots Obsession fills WNDR’s atrium and transports visitors into Kusama’s obsession with polka dots, repetition, celestial bodies, and the experience of the infinite. (Neighbourhood: West Loop / Fulton Market)

Festivals + Events

The Annual African Festival of the Arts (September 1 - 4, 2023) – The Festival is one of Chicago’s largest neighbourhood festivals and thenation’s largest Labour Day Weekend celebration of Black global cultures. (Neighbourhood: South Side / Washington Park) 

The Chicago Air and Water Show (August 19 - 20, 2023), presented by the City of Chicago, is the largest free show of its kind in the UnitedStates. (Neighbourhood: Lakefront) 

Chicago Blues Festival, the largest free Blues festival in the world, will return from June 8 – 11, 2023, in Millennium Park. With four days of top tier talent performing across three stages, headliners include four-time Grammy® winners Los Lobos; Blind Boys of Alabama, who will perform with two-time Grammy® winner, Bobby Rush; multi award-winning artist and eldest son of Muddy Waters, Mud Morganfield; three of Chicago’s own living Blues legends John Primer & The Real Deal Blues Band, Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials, and the Jimmy Burns Band; B.B. King Entertainer and Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year winner Sugaray Rayford, and more. (Neighbourhood: The Loop)

Chicago Gospel Music Festival will return June 3, 2023, kicking off the summer season in Millennium Park. The lineup features Choir Nation opening for multiple Grammy® Award winners Karen Clark Sheard and Tye Tribbett on the Jay Pritzker Pavilion stage. (Neighbourhood: The Loop)

Chicago House Music Festival and Conference (June 23, 2023 at Chicago Cultural Center; June 24, 2023 at Humboldt Park Boathouse) - Chicago’s favourite dance party celebrates the genre born in Chicago that has gone on to revolutionize dance music internationally. (Neighbourhood: The Loop, Humboldt Park)

Chicago Pizza Fest (August 27 - 28, 2023) - Chicago Pizza City Fest brings together 40 of the region’s best pizza makers for two days of pizza making and appreciation, baking live on 10 ovens, along with speakers, demos, and seminars. (Neighbourhood: West Loop) 

Chicago PrideFest (June 17 - 18, 2023) - The two-day street festival features live music on three stages, a Youth Pride Space for teens, best of Chicago drag performance, Proud Pet Parade, dance exhibitions, Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus, high heel race for prizes and over 150 vendors. (Neighbourhood: Northalsted / Lakeview)

Chicago Pride Parade (June 23, 2023) - The parade is one of the most popular LGBTQ+ events in the city, concluding the city’s month-long celebrations with a famous procession held on the last Sunday of June. (Neighbourhood: Northalsted / Lakeview)

Fireworks at Navy Pier (May 27 - September 4, 2023) - Chicago’s favourite sky spectacle show returns Saturday nights at 10:00 pm and Wednesdays at 9:00 pm from Memorial Day weekend through Labour Day weekend. (Neighbourhood: Streeterville)

Grant Park Music Festival (June 14 - August 19, 2023) - A Chicago tradition for almost 90 years, features 10 weeks of free classical music concerts, artistic development initiatives, radio broadcasts, and more. Attendees can grab a spot on the Great Lawn, set up a picnic, and kick back while Pritzker Pavilion’s state-of-the-art acoustic system delivers an extraordinary sonic experience — all with the Chicago skyline as a backdrop. (Neighbourhood: The Loop)

Lollapalooza (August 3 - 6, 2023) - The four-day legendary music festival, returns to Chicago's Grant Park, with a genre-defying lineup featuring headliners Kendrick Lamar, Billie Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Lana Del Ray. (Neighbourhood: The Loop)

Millennium Park Summer Music Series (June 22 - August 21, 2023) - This summer series returns Monday and Thursdays in Millennium Park, featuring a wide variety of music from established and emerging artists at the iconic Jay Pritzker Pavilion. (Neighbourhood: The Loop)

Northalsted Market Days (August 12 - 13, 2023) - The 41st Northalsted Market Days is a weekend long live music street festival celebrating the community in Chicago’s landmark Northalsted / Lakeview district. (Neighbourhood: Northalsted / Lakeview)

Pride in the Park Chicago (June 23 - 24, 2023) - This annual outdoor music festival held in Chicago's Grant Park features LGBTQ+ performers, artists, vendors, and more. (Neighbourhood: The Loop)

Puerto Rican Festival Chicago (June 8-11, 2023) – This lively three-day event in Humboldt Park will feature authentic Puerto Rican food, traditional drinks, carnival rides, games and more.  (Neighbourhood: Humboldt Park)

Taste of Chicago, ahead of its main September festival in Grant Park, will host three neighbourhood pop-ups in Humboldt Park (June 24, 2023), Pullman Park (July 15, 2023), and Marquette Park (August 5, 2023). (Neighbourhood: The Loop, Humboldt Park, Pullman District)

Windy City Smokeout (July 13 - 16, 2023) is Chicago's top BBQ & Country Music Festival. This year features an impressive lineup of country music superstars like Zach Bryan, Darius Rucker, Luke Bryan, Zac Brown Band, and more, alongside the world’s best pitmasters serving up ribs, brisket, smoked meats, and more. (Neighbourhood: Near West Side)

Attractions

ART on THE MART, an innovative digital art project that transforms a Chicago architectural landmark into a larger-than-life canvas, is celebratingits fifth anniversary this year. Programming is on view nightly at 8:30 p.m. 

The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) has announced the 2023 summer season of Chicago City Markets. The Chicago City Markets sell fresh seasonal produce, flowers, unique Chicago-made products, and rare finds at Chicago’s longest running farmers market on Daley Plaza and a dozen more community markets in neighbourhoods across Chicago. 

Meetings, Conventions + Venues

Chicago has been chosen to host the Democratic National Convention next year, which will take place August 19 - 22, 2024, at the United Center. Stay tuned for additional updates and information. 

Theatre + Performing Arts

Broadway In Chicago is proud to produce the following shows as part of its summer roster: Disney’s Aladdin (May 17 - 28, 2023, Broadway Playhouse Cadillac Palace Theatre); Hadestown (June 20 - 25, 2023, CIBC Theatre); MJ (August 1 - September 2, 2023,  James M. Nederlander Theatre); and To Kill A Mockingbird (August 8 - 13, 2023, CIBC Theatre).

Chicago Shakespeare Theater will present Disney's Beauty and the Beast (July 13 - August 20, 2023) at the Courtyard Theater this summer.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra continues its 2023 season with the following standout events: Ben Folds & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (May 30, 2023); and Concert for Chicago (June 27, 2023). 

The Joffrey Ballet is offering an evening of free public performances on June 25, 2023, at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. The Joffrey Ballet’s “Joffrey for All Celebration” will feature dance workshops in the lawn and performances by Joffrey Company Artists.

Sports

The Chicago Bulls announced the second annual Bulls Fest, scheduled to take place August 12 - 13, 2023. As the largest interactive basketballexperience in Chicago, this free, two-day festival will celebrate the sport of basketball, its influence on style, art, and culture, and all things Chicago Bulls. 

The 2023 Bank of America Chicago Marathon will return on October 8, 2023. This elite athletic event is one of the most prestigious marathons in the world and is one of the six World Marathon Majors. 

For the first time ever, the sights, sounds, and speed of NASCAR are coming to downtown Chicago on July 1 - 2, 2023. As part of NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season, the Chicago Street Race Weekend will feature the NASCAR Cup Series’ Grant Park 220 and NASCAR Xfinity Series’ The Loop 121 competing on a 12-turn street course that will take competitors past many of Chicago’s most renowned downtown landmarks, along with concerts by The Chainsmokers and Miranda Lambert with the support of The Black Crowes and Charley Crockett over Fourth of July Weekend.

Sail Grand Prix (SailGP) is returning for its second year to Chicago's Navy Pier on June 16 - 17, 2023, to open Season 4 of the annual racing season. Chicago will be SailGPs only fresh-water venue in the world. SailGP is one of the fastest emerging properties in world sports featuring exciting up-close action as teams race identical F50 catamarans. 

For more ways to discover Chicago's culture, Midwestern hospitality, and urban adventure, visit ChooseChicago.com for more information.