Festivals near Chicago

Chicago holds a claim few cities can challenge: it was here, in the South Side clubs of the 1980s, that house music was born. Four decades on, the Windy City remains a stronghold of electronic and techno sound, honored every Labor Day by ARC Music Festival in Union Park, which pays tribute to the genre's pioneers as much as to the global scene. But the city is far more than four-on-the-floor: on the lawns of Grant Park, framed by skyscrapers and Lake Michigan, Lollapalooza unfolds each summer as one of the planet's great all-genre festivals — four days and hundreds of artists in the heart of downtown.

Chicago's other soul is rawer, more wired: in Douglass Park, Riot Fest keeps the city's punk and rock lineage alive with cult-band reunions and a carnival atmosphere. Nearby, North Coast Music Festival closes out the summer by blending electronic music and hip-hop, while Grant Park hosts Sueños Festival in spring, a major celebration of Latin music and reggaeton. FestT calculates your FestiScore — the affinity between a lineup and your favorite artists — and keeps dates, headliners and ticketing up to date.