It’s hard to imagine the city turning down the reported sole bidder to run Taste of Chicago and its other outdoor summer festivals.
Given the qualifications of that bidder – Celebrate Chicago, a partnership that includes experienced concert promoters Jam Productions and AEG Live, plus the Illinois Restaurant Association – accepting the bid offers not just a way for the city to trim its budget but to actually improve the musical quality of its downtrodden summer festivals.
The down side, of course, is that a few of these events would no longer be “free” (though patrons already are paying for food tickets at Taste). But the admission fees that are being proposed ($20 at Taste up to $65 for major concert draws, $10 for Blues and Jazz Fest, free for Viva Chicago, Celtic, Gospel and Country Fest) aren’t exorbitant. Pricing safeguards need to be installed to ensure these festivals remain accessible and affordable to the vast majority of Chicagoans, a reasonable middle ground between "free" and "out of my league."
What’s clear is that "free" wasn't working anymore, and hasn’t been for quite some time. With the exception of Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello and a handful of others, the top concert draws at Taste and the other, more music-intensive city summer events in recent years have been below par, a parade of has-beens, journeymen and cover bands.
In booking Taste, the Mayor’s Office of Special Events made an effort in recent years to draw on the rich local community, and turned over some smaller stages to local labels. Jam and its partners can surely expand that initiative. The involvement of Jam – as opposed to some deep-pocketed outside promoter with no real ties to Chicago – could be a potential boon for both the festivals and the local music community. Tie-ins with Chicago-based labels and clubs (who traditionally suffer during the summer months while most touring acts play outdoors) could and should be encouraged.
At the other end of the spectrum, Jam and AEG (which also has ties to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival) should have enough clout, credibility and connections to draw top-tier talent to Grant Park throughout the summer.
Bottom line from a musical standpoint: Privatizing Taste was inevitable, and the bidding options could’ve been far worse. If there was a surprise, it is that Texas-based C3 Presents, which books Lollapalooza in Grant Park, decided to sit out. It would have been interesting to see how the city would’ve handled a competing bid from a company that has ingratiated itself with the Daley administration in recent years. But C3 apparently had its hands full launching the latest incarnation of Lollapalooza, which is to debut in Chile in April.
Meanwhile, time’s a-wasting. Most summer festivals are booked by this point, which means that should Celebrate Chicago be awarded the contract, it will need to work fast. It’s the first of what are sure to be many challenges facing the city’s prospective partner-in-waiting.
greg@gregkot.com