No More Free Fests?

Golly, this sounds familiar:

• Chicago’s neighborhood street festivals — a staple of summertime in the city — are struggling to survive, according to a new coalition of 20 festival organizers that includes Chicago’s Pride Fest, Taste of Randolph and the Square Roots Fest in Lincoln Square.

  The organizers have joined forces to sound the alarm on rising operating costs and diminishing entry donations. Those two factors, the group said, have made the model unsustainable.

  The coalition called “Save Our Street Fests,” which went public with its concerns Friday, also includes nonprofit street festivals such as Wicker Park Fest, Northalsted Market Days, Lincoln Square Ravenswood Apple Fest and several others.

When we wrote about it just a week ago, we concentrated on parades:

• spare the neighborhoods - Grant Park for all parades, ethnic, cultural, alternative lifestyle...every single one;
• staging area is Columbus, Randolph to Monroe;
• parade route is Monroe to 1100 South;
• disbanding area is 1100 to Roosevelt;
• in a pinch, you could even end parades across Roosevelt at the Museum Campus or toward McFetridge (plenty of room for buses);
• encourage the use of Soldier Field and Grant Park / Millennium Park lots for attendees. You'll sell them out within the first few hours for the big events.

A smart politician (haha - sorry) could probably figure out what parks and neighborhoods could be utilized for festivals without the massive disruptions the parades have wrought. Maybe even use a bunch of the under-utilized high school campuses. Lots of these have built in parking areas and gigantic flat spaces for use.

Or just cancel anything that can't fund itself - the days of the free ride are rapidly approaching un-sustainability.