The Chicago House Music Festival makes its grand return to Millennium Park – Chicago Reader

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The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events debuted the Chicago House Music Festival in Millennium Park on Memorial Day weekend in 2018. Even in its first year, the fest felt like part of a tradition, because the city had presented house-music events in the same place at around the same time for years. On June 3, 2014, the city hosted a belated memorial for Frankie Knuckles next to the Bean, and in 2016 the first Chicago House Party (not festival) arrived in Millennium Park the Saturday before Memorial Day. 
In the years since the COVID pandemic obliterated spring and summer programming in 2020, the Chicago House Music Festival has suffered more indignities than any of the city’s other heritage music fests. DCASE has moved it around the calendar like a sticky note. In 2022, Lollapalooza producer C3 helped launch Sueños, a three-day fest of reggaeton and Latin pop on Memorial Day weekend in Grant Park—and the House Music Festival hasn’t returned to its Millennium Park that weekend since. Last year, the department relocated the House Music Festival to Humboldt Park, where it ran in late June in conjunction with satellite programming for Taste of Chicago (the NASCAR race delayed Taste’s usual Grant Park event till September). As much as I like to see more free music programming in a neighborhood park, I still feel like this “Taste of House” experiment was a sop to distract us from the city’s continued sale of downtown to the highest bidder. Thankfully, the House Music Festival happens in Millennium Park again this year, albeit on the Sunday after Memorial Day. It caps four days of house-centric programming that includes a conference at the Cultural Center on Friday, May 31, and a fantastic festival preparty on Saturday, June 1, that’s disappointingly held at Navy Pier’s Wave Wall Stage. The Sunday festival is nearly as robust as the pre-COVID version, with a full day of DJ sets by historically important house figures on two stages. Ghetto-house pioneer DJ Slugo headlines the Chicago House Stage on the north promenade, which also hosts the Queer Fam Pride Jam at 10 AM (presented by Slo ’Mo and Kido) and a 4 PM set by footwork producer Jana Rush. Pioneering woman house DJ Lori Branch kicks off the music on the Main Stage (aka Pritzker Pavilion) at 1 PM, opening a bill that climaxes in a terrific one-two punch: Farley “Jackmaster” Funk followed by a set from Wayne Williams and Alan King of the Chosen Few DJs. Early arrival is a must—I’m betting the park will reach maximum capacity hours before the headliners perform.
Chicago House Music Festival The Main Stage features Wayne Williams and Alan King of the Chosen Few DJs, Farley “Jackmaster” Funk, Tony Touch, Anané, Karizma, Ash Lauryn, and Lori Branch. Sun 6/2, 1 PM, Millennium Park, 201 E. Randolph, free, all ages

The Chicago House Stage features DJ Slugo, Johnny Fiasco, Flores Negras, Jana Rush, and more. Sun 6/2, 10 AM–9 PM, Millennium Park, 201 E. Randolph, free, all ages
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