If there’s one thing that marks a Chicago summer, it’s the various cultural festivals hosted in neighborhoods across the city. Chicago’s summer festival season may be winding down, but it’s never too early to start making plans for next year. Throughout the summer, immigrant and diaspora communities hosted festivals celebrating their cultures through food, music, art, and more. Here are a few that prove that you don’t have to leave Chicago to experience cultures from around the world.
If you want to know more about upcoming festivals this fall, make sure to stick around until the end.
Maifest
I didn’t actually intend to end up at Maifest Chicago. I came across the festival while riding my bike west down Leland Avenue, one of my usual favorite routes for aimless wandering. Once I hit the heart of Lincoln Square, Northside Chicago’s historically German neighborhood, I realized the street was blocked off for some kind of street fair. As I looked around, I noticed that this was no ordinary neighborhood block party; there were women in flower crowns and dirndls, men in lederhosen, German-language rock music (courtesy of local band Pieptone!) onstage, and lots and lots of beer and sausages. The Oscar Mayer Weinermobile also made an appearance.
I’d stumbled into Maifest, an annual festival hosted by Chicago’s German community at the end of May each year. Maifest – “Mai” is German for the month of May – is a traditional German celebration of the arrival of spring, celebrated both in Germany and throughout the global German diaspora. In Chicago, Maifest seems to take the shape of a springtime version of Oktoberfest, with lots of Bavarian and Southern German culture and, of course, lots of beer. On the festival’s website, Maifest Chicago Vice President Joe Bradke notes that the goal of the festival is to keep these German springtime traditions alive and “to share (German) culture with (the) local community.”
The festival was previously held in a temporary location across from the Old Town School of Folk Music due to construction near the original location in the heart of Lincoln Square, but moved back to its original location last year. Lincoln Square has historically been home to a large German community and still plays host to several German businesses, such as Merz Apothecary, Gene’s Sausage Shop and Delicatessen, and Himmel’s restaurant, as well as DANK Haus German American Cultural Center, who are one of the organizations involved in Maifest, and a piece of the Berlin Wall, which was relocated at the Western Brown Line CTA Station after Germany’s reunification in 1989.
What a delightful surprise it was to discover this celebration of Chicago German Culture at the beginning of summer – and, unlike many festivals of its kind, admission was free, which made it perfect for a spontaneous detour.
Andersonville Midsommarfest
Also on the North side, Andersonville became a hub for Swedish immigrants to Chicago during the 19th and 20th centuries, especially after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. While Andersonville’s Swedish community has dwindled, many traces of this heritage remain, from Svea Swedish restaurant to the Swedish American Museum. Naturally, this neighborhood also hosts Chicago’s annual Swedish Midsommarfest. Don’t worry, though, Ari Aster fans: nobody gets sacrificed in a bear costume in the real-world version of this tradition.
In large part because Andersonville is no longer a primarily Swedish neighborhood, there is comparatively little that’s “Swedish” about Midsommarfest as opposed to many of the city’s other ethnic festivals. It feels more like a Pride-adjacent summer neighborhood block party with a Swedish flair. Some of the more Scandinavian elements of the festival included an ABBA tribute band on the main stage, lingonberry slushies at one of the many food vendors, and an activity station where guests could pay to make their own traditional flower crown. There was also a raffle in which attendees could win a trip to Sweden. Ultimately, though, Andersonville Midsommarfest is proudly multicultural. Vendors hawked cuisines ranging from Thai to Polish to Italian to classic American county-fair fare, and entertainment ran the gamut from the Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus (excellent, and featuring no shortage of ABBA covers themselves) to local DJs and drag queens.
I opted for a birria empanada as my snack of choice, and despite the pastry’s Latin American origins being halfway around the globe from Sweden, it really was a very good empanada, and a great example of how Chicago’s mosaic of immigrant communities gives this city the kind of cosmopolitan, global flavor that comes from cultural exchange and fusion. Eating a perfect South American empanada at a Swedish festival without ever leaving the Midwest is the kind of experience that proves that immigration and diversity make our city great.
One of the most interesting, and most traditional, lingering Swedish traditions at Midsommarfest is the midsommarstång – the Swedish-style maypole, erected and danced around by the Nordic Folk Dancers of Chicago.
Linda Westergren-Muhr has been dancing with the Nordic Folk Dancers since the group’s founding 53 years ago. It’s even where she met her husband Paul Muhr, a fellow dancer. The couple has been providing the greenery for the midsommarstång from their own garden for thirty years.
The maypole tradition arrived in Sweden from Germany, said Westergren-Muhr, but because the colder Swedish climate means that flowers and greenery are not yet in bloom in early May, the tradition evolved to take place during midsummer instead.
The group dances throughout the state, at events from Rockford to the Mississippi river, but they don’t only attend Scandinavian festivals. The Nordic Folk Dancers also perform at Polish, Chinese, and Vietnamese festivals around Chicago.
“We are promoting culture and heritage,” said Westergren-Muhr. She continued, “Whether it’s Swedish culture, or anyone’s culture, we want people to realize every culture has something to offer.”
A Tale of Two Greekfests
Lincoln Park Greek Fest
If you’re not careful, you might get a little mixed up trying to coordinate plans at the Lincoln Square and Lincoln Park Greek Fests, held on two consecutive weekends in similarly-named neighborhoods on the North Side of Chicago. (I will not confirm or deny whether this happened to me.) Like snowflakes, no two Greek fests are exactly alike, and it’s worth visiting more than one.
Greek Fests, as a whole, are one of the most common types of diaspora cultural festivals in the United States, and are often put on by local Greek Orthodox parishes as fundraisers. (Nearly every major Greek Orthodox Church in Chicago has a festival this summer, so if you missed this one, there are plenty more to visit.) Lincoln Park Greek Fest is hosted by St. George Greek Orthodox Church, and proceeds from the festival go toward supporting the parish.
My first impressions of Lincoln Park Greek Fest were, frankly, mixed. The food — gyros, kebabs, Greek salad, and baklava, among other traditional treats — was fantastic; the ouzo lemonade was flowing, and the live bouzouki music was danceable. But I was frankly unimpressed with the selection of vendors that set up shop along the blocked-off street.
I was hoping to purchase something unique, handmade, and Greek, but it seemed like nearly every vendor was unaffiliated with the St. George community and was peddling what my friends and I half-jokingly refer to as “craftslop”; the very same dropshipped rings, quirky plastic earrings, and crochet plushies offered at every Pride Fest, craft fair, and block party on the continent. While this was good for my wallet, I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed with the craft fair’s lack of specificity and care.
SAIC student Grace Sophia Law (MA 2028), who grew up in a heavily Greek American neighborhood in Chicago’s southwest suburbs, said, “I have vivid memories of, as a kid, various forms of handmade crafts at Greek Fests around the south suburbs. The bazaar every October was where we got fine handmade lace bed and table linens, handmade dolls, and the big crafts, but even in the summer, there were always jewelry, paper fans, and smaller laces, like head coverings. Now, I see commercially printed T-Shirts, 3D-printed objects, and other slop take up a significant portion of the stalls.”
Ultimately, though, Lincoln Park Greek Fest redeemed itself in the joy of its live performance. As the Ormi Orchestra played traditional Greek standards onstage, my friends and I observed a group of onlookers take up a kalamatianos circle dance and were eventually invited to participate ourselves. We were a bit nervous at first, but the basic version of the dance had only two steps, and soon (and after the effects of some more ouzo gave us a little liquid courage) we were comfortably enveloped in the circle, stepping forward and back with the tempo. On its website, Lincoln Park Greek Fest advertises “filoxenia” — traditional Greek hospitality — and we found it in abundance at the festival. It didn’t matter that we were not Greek or Orthodox; the organizers of the festival warmly and proudly shared their culture with us, and we had a wonderful time.
I think this kind of hospitality is the best part of cultural festivals like Lincoln Park Greek Fest. These festivals exist not just for people to celebrate their own cultures in diaspora, but to invite their neighbors of all backgrounds to experience a taste of their culture too. One doesn’t feel like an intruder or a tourist at something like Greek Fest, because in addition to being a celebration of Greek culture, this kind of cultural exchange can only exist in a diverse and multiethnic city like Chicago. It’s not the same experience as going to a festival in Greece, but it doesn’t have to be; diaspora and immigrant festivals have a quality all their own.
Lincoln Square Greekfest
Smaller in scope and located entirely within the grounds of St. Demetrios parish, my general impression of Lincoln Square Greekfest, held the week after Lincoln Park, was that it was less outward-focused. While visitors were absolutely welcomed and shown wonderful hospitality, this was at its core a celebration for the St. Demetrios community. This time around,I felt more conscious of my role as a guest participating in a culture that was not my own. Of course, the other side of that consideration was that Lincoln Square Greekfest had nothing like the former’s generic craft fair vendors. Nearly everything available, from blue glass kako mati talismans to christening gowns, was unique and decidedly Greek.
Evelyn Livaditis, whose Greek nickname is Nia, sold Orthodox icons, prayer ropes, and other Greek cultural and religious items from a table located in the parish’s Greek Cultural Center. While St. Demetrios is not Livaditis’s home parish, she and her small business, Nia’s Collections, set up shop at Greekfests throughout the Chicago area, and she said that Lincoln Square was one of the best.
“The weather, thank goodness, has been good for all of us … everybody’s loving the food, and the kids are loving the bouncy house, and just the Greek culture,”said Livaditis. She added that Lincoln Square Greekfest was a great way for non-Greeks to experience a taste of her culture; “You learn a little bit about it, you get to see the church and see the people, you get to try the food.”
“Everyone here is wonderful,” Livaditis said, “I feel so lucky.”
Two groups – one of teenagers, one of adults – performed traditional dances from across Greece, both the mainland and the islands, in traditional clothing. This was more of a “sit down and appreciate as an audience” performance than the casual dancing at Lincoln Park, in which even us non-Greeks were invited to come participate. I was really blown away by the talent of the dancers, and equally impressed that the teenage dancers were as dedicated to celebrating their cultural heritage as they were. I was also intrigued by the fact that even the parish priest participated in the performance; he was up onstage with a drum.
Upcoming festivals
If you missed these festivals, don’t fret; there are still plenty of cultural celebrations from around the globe to attend before the summer officially ends and into the fall.
El Grito Chicago, on Sept. 12 and 13, is a family-friendly celebration in Grant Park for Mexican Independence Day.
If you want a similar experience to Lincoln Square’s Maifest, the Chicago German-American community also hosts Oktoberfest in Lincoln Square that runs from Sept. 11 to 13th. There will even be a parade.
For anyone who has ever thought to themself, “Wouldn’t it be amazing to eat 17 different kinds of dumplings in one day?,” you’re in luck. From Sept. 19 to 20, in Lincoln Park, the World Dumpling Festival will be taking place. The tickets for it act as a fundraiser for the Chicago Cultural Alliance.
In Union Park in the West Loop from Sept. 25 to 27, the 33rd African/Caribbean International Festival of Life is being held. IFOL is a huge celebration of international Black culture with lots of food, music, and art.
If live music is your jam, make sure to check out the World Music Festival happening throughout the city from Sept. 25 to Oct. 4.
