Illinois Events

Chicago Blues Festival

Three days in early June in Millennium Park, held since 1984 on the anniversary of Muddy Waters's death and billed by the city as the world's largest free blues concert.

Taste of Chicago

July in the downtown lakefront park: the world's largest food festival and the city's largest festival, born on 4 July 1980, with music stages beside the food stalls.

Lollapalooza

Four days in the downtown lakefront park each July or early August, settled in Chicago since 2005, about 400,000 people and a sell-out every year.

Illinois State Fair, Springfield

Eleven days in mid-August at the State Fairgrounds, held since 1853; 7–17 August in 2025, when 723,079 people came, the second-best attendance in its history.

Chicago Jazz Festival

Four free days over Labor Day weekend in Millennium Park, programmed with the Jazz Institute of Chicago.

Chicago Marathon

October, one of the eight World Marathon Majors, about 50,000 runners on a flat course that starts and ends in the downtown lakefront park.

Open House Chicago

The architecture centre's free autumn weekend that opens buildings normally closed to the public, the largest architecture event in the city.

Superman Celebration, Metropolis

Four days each June since 1979 in the southern Illinois town that calls itself the Home of Superman.

Millennium Park's and Navy Pier's free, year-round programmes are the operators' own; the festival dates above are the encyclopaedia's, and each should be checked with its organiser before travelling.