Memorial Day weekend kicks off Chicago’s busy calendar of music festivals and neighborhood street fairs. And this holiday weekend, the city will play host to three major music festivals within a 4-mile radius.
In Grant Park, the reggaeton and Latin Music-focused Sueños returns for the fifth year; West Town’s Salt Shed is bringing back its indie-heavy Warm Love Cool Dreams festival; and Union Park hosts the inaugural R&B and house fest Forever Mine.
Asked how it is preparing for the weekend, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications said in a statement that there will be “citywide deployments to ensure the safety and security of the public” and that the department is monitoring weather conditions. A spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department said there will be additional police resources throughout the city this weekend.
While the city supports festivals with street closures and approving security plans, event organizers must foot the bill for the on-site private security, which is required by the city to obtain a permit. Starting this weekend, festgoers will notice more emphasis on security, from new gate screeners at the Salt Shed to double ID checks at Forever Mine. And at some street festivals — a staple of a Chicago summer — pairs of security guards will be stationed at entrances around the clock, according to Pamela Maass with Wicker Park Fest.
Organizers say running safe events comes at an ever-increasing cost as security bills continue to climb.
“It’s not really a negotiable,” said Brent Heyl, who booked the Warm Love Cool Dreams lineup, which includes Courtney Barnett, Toro y Moi and Tortoise. “We pride ourselves on creating a safe environment. We hang our hat on it.”
The new gate screeners, Heyl said, were pricey but are more thorough and efficient, using sensors and artificial intelligence. Permanent venues like the Salt Shed employ security personnel directly and have time to hone their systems, but festivals held on city streets or public parks must erect a safe environment in a matter of days.
“When you’re setting up for the weekend in a park, you are really rolling the dice in a major way,” said Heyl, director of music at 16 On Center, which also produces the Evanston Folk Festival. “As somebody who does those events, it’s nerve-racking, because you [can] get rained out, or any kind of issues that can pop up with a nontraditional site.”
Last year, a coalition of Chicago street festivals sounded the alarm on the skyrocketing price of event production, including security costs. The “Save Our Street Fests” initiative was meant to spread awareness that events like Wicker Park Fest, Northalsted Market Days and Lincoln Square Ravenswood Apple Fest aren’t funded by the city and instead rely on gate donations, which had been steadily falling.
Last summer, street festivals posted signs at the gates, encouraging attendees to pay up. The effort “moved the needle,” said Maass, president and CEO of the Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce, and led to increased donations year over year at all participating street festivals. Still, Maass said the group will continue its information campaign this summer.
“It’s really just as simple as reminding people that this is a fundraiser,” Maass said. “That private security guard is getting paid, and not by the city of Chicago. These bands on stage, they’re getting paid, not by the city of Chicago, but by your gate donations. That’s how this is happening.”
Maass said the required private security for Wicker Park Fest costs the same as three days’ worth of bands who play on the event’s stages.
“It’s a human-powered entity, right?” Maass said. “It’s not a generator, which was the second-highest increase, and it’s not insurance, which is completely out of all of our hands. Security is a mandatory part of our event permit, and we can’t produce our events without it, but it’s all people.”
The rising costs of security, insurance and talent were also among the pain points for the beloved indie festival Pitchfork, before it shuttered in 2024. Now, Forever Mine and its headliners — Keyshia Cole, Kaytranada, Kelly Rowland and Monica — will launch this weekend in the same spot Pitchfork once reigned: Union Park.
Locally owned organizer Windy City Events Management aimed its new Forever Mine fest at nostalgic millennials. The business also produces Michelada Fest, which will return June 26-28 after being canceled last summer amid concerns over visas for international artists and the “rapidly changing political climate,” as organizers called it at the time. “It was a gut punch last year, not only from a cultural standpoint, but from the local vendors that we support,” said Windy City Events co-founder Fernando Nieto of the Michelada Fest cancellation.
Nieto and cofounder Miguel Torres said it’s important to them that Forever Mine and Michelada Fest be all-ages. But as a recent dustup at the venue Chop Shop underscored, dynamics between security and young fans can be tricky. It also means more thorough screening to prevent underage drinking. For Nieto and Torres, the extra effort is worth it.
“I think historically we have had a passion for creating special events that appeal to the Black and Brown community, which we often feel has been underserved in the city,” Nieto said. Both the Forever Mine and Warm Love Cool Dreams teams said talent and production costs are their top expenses.
This summer also marks Chicago’s first festival season since Operation Midway Blitz, which brought months of heightened immigration enforcement to the city.
Sueños, which draws a predominantly Latino crowd to its two-day lakefront fest, did not reply to several interview requests about its security plans for this year. Last year, festival co-founder Aaron Ampudia told WBEZ that the organizers “provide the top safety measures and planning” when presenting the event, which draws at least 50,000 to Grant Park daily.
Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ.