Fabulous Festivals

Fabulous Festivals

Chicago festivals range from local neighborhood get-togethers to citywide extravaganzas. People fly in for the Chicago Blues Festival, but try to catch a neighborhood street fair for some great people-watching and fried dough if you're in town between June and September. On some weekends, there are several festivals at once. For details, see www.chicagoreader.com.

The St. Patrick's Day parade (312/942-9188) turns the city on its head: the Chicago River is dyed green, shamrocks decorate the street, and the center stripe of Dearborn Street is painted the color of the Irish from Wacker Drive to Van Buren Street. This is your chance to get your fill of bagpipes, green beer, and green kneesocks. You probably won't see the whole thing -- the parade can clock in at over four hours.

The Chicago Blues Festival (312/744-3315. www.chicagobluesfestival.org), in Grant Park, is a popular four-day, three-stage event in June starring blues greats from Chicago and around the country. If you see only one festival in Chicago, this is the one.

The medium-size Chicago Gospel Fest (312/744-3315) brings its joyful sounds to Grant Park in early June.

Taste of Chicago (Grant Park, Columbus Dr. between Jackson and Randolph Sts. 312/744-3315) dishes out pizza, cheesecake, and other Chicago specialties to 3.5 million people over a 10-day period before the July Fourth holiday that includes top pop acts as well as novelties -- like high divers who torpedo into small swimming pools.

The Chicago Jazz Festival (312/744-3315) holds sway for four days during Labor Day weekend in Grant Park.

At the Celtic Fest, Celtic food, art, storytelling, dance, and a bagpiper's circle celebrate everything Irish. It's held in Grant Park during the month of September.

At the weeklong World Music Festival, international artists play traditional and contemporary music at venues across the city in September.

Street fairs are held every week in summer, but two stand out as the best. Halsted Market Days, in August, is the city's largest street festival. It's held in the heart of the gay community of Lakeview and has blocks and blocks of vendors as well as some wild entertainment such as zany drag queens and radical cheerleaders. The Taste of Randolph is more sedate, featuring dishes from the fine restaurants lining the western end of Randolph Street in June.

Chicago's holiday season officially starts with the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival (www.themagnificentmile.com) a weekend-long event at the end of every November with tons of family-friendly activities including musical performances, ice-carving contests, and stage shows. The fanfare culminates in a parade and the illumination of more than one million lights along Michigan Avenue.