Ravinia Festival: A Summer Musical Must
There are few things better on a warm Chicago summer night than sitting under the stars listening to live music at the Ravinia Festival. A sprawling 36-acre music festival area in the northern suburb of Highland Park, Ravinia has been entertaining music lovers for more than a century with an eclectic line-up of performers.
Ravinia started in 1904 as an amusement park with a large performance pavilion. Back then, admission to a 1905 New York Philharmonic concert cost 25 cents – and a top-seat opera ticket rang in at $3.25. Known as the opera capital of the world from 1919 to 1931, Ravinia has since expanded its musical repertoire to include pop, country, jazz, R&B and every other type of musical performance.
Today Ravinia hosts 120 to 150 events over each three-month summer season. Concerts can be enjoyed from the 3,200-seat pavilion and the lawn (where picnickers take advantage of the high-tech sound system and ample blanket space, as well as in the 950-seat Martin Theatre and the 450-seat Gordon Hall.
For a truly special music experience, concert-goers can combine dinner and a show from the terrace of the new Park View Restaurant overlooking the lawn.
This season Ravinia welcomes 135 guest artists and ensembles from June 5th through September 19th. Big names like Carrie Underwood, John Legend, Tom Jones, Steve Miller Band, Indigo Girls and Bonnie Raitt mix with classic performances from The Temptations, The Four Tops and the Beach Boys.
The season will also see a world-premiere tribute to Lincoln by Ramsey Lewis, jazz performances from Diana Krall and Herbie Hancock, and dozens of classical concerts from world-renowned orchestras, quartets and soloists.
Tickets range in price from free (25 events are specially priced this season) to pretty pricey for top notch pavilion seats at the bigger draw events, but lawn seats are almost always reasonable. There are several restaurants and many food vendors at Ravinia, offering everything from fine dining to coffee and snacks, but like at most attractions, prices can be a little high.
HelloChicago Tip: Buy lawn tickets, pack a picnic dinner, blanket and bottle of wine, and lay back and relax as you listen to terrific music under the moonlight. On a nice summer evening, you can’t get much better than that.
Posted on Apr 6, 2011 by D.J. Siegel
