What's on in Chicago, United States through the year

Busy — Winter / Christmas break in United States, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in January.

Still on: Skating in Millennium Park (15 Nov – 5 Mar (usually)), Lakefront wind chill (1 Dec – 1 Mar (usually))

Busy — Chicago Auto Show

• Festival

  Chicago Auto Show

  7–20 Feb · usuallyMajor festivalCrowded

  The largest auto show in North America takes over McCormick Place for ten days in the deadest month, which is exactly why the city's hotels price February around it. Source ↗

Still on: Skating in Millennium Park (15 Nov – 5 Mar (usually)), Lakefront wind chill (1 Dec – 1 Mar (usually))

Peak crowds — St Patrick's Day river dyeing, Spring break in United States

• Festival

  St Patrick's Day river dyeing

  13–18 Mar · usuallyMajor festivalCrowded

  The plumbers' union dyes the river green at mid-morning on the Saturday before the 17th, and the parade goes up Columbus Drive after it. The bridges over the main branch are full an hour ahead. Source ↗

Still on: Skating in Millennium Park (15 Nov – 5 Mar (usually)), Lakefront wind chill (1 Dec – 1 Mar (usually))

Shoulder season — an ordinary month

• Nature

  Spring migration at Montrose Point

  20 Apr – 31 May · usuallyBirdlife season

  The lakefront funnels migrants into a few acres of scrub at Montrose, and on a good May morning the Magic Hedge holds more warbler species than most states see in a year. Source ↗

Busy — one of its best months for weather

• Opening

  Lakefront beach season

  22 May – 7 Sep · usuallySummer season opens

  The city's twenty-odd beaches are guarded from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day and effectively shut either side of it. Lake Michigan takes until August to become anything like swimmable. Source ↗

Still on: Spring migration at Montrose Point (20 Apr – 31 May (usually))

Peak crowds — Chicago Pride Parade, Summer break in United States

• Festival

  Chicago Blues Festival

  1–10 Jun · usuallyMajor festival

  Three free days in Millennium Park in early June, the first of the city's summer lakefront festivals and the one with the strongest claim on the place. No ticket, no fence. Source ↗

• Festival

  Chicago Pride Parade

  22–30 Jun · usuallyCrowdedClosures

  The last Sunday of June closes Broadway and Halsted through Lakeview for the afternoon, with the Red Line stations at Addison and Belmont exit-only for most of it. Source ↗

Still on: Lakefront beach season (22 May – 7 Sep (usually))

Peak crowds — Lollapalooza, Summer break in United States

• Festival

  Lollapalooza

  28 Jul – 4 Aug · usuallyMajor festivalCrowdedBook early

  Four days and a hundred thousand people a day in Grant Park at the turn of July into August. The Loop hotels reprice around it and Michigan Avenue is a slow walk each evening. Source ↗

Still on: Lakefront beach season (22 May – 7 Sep (usually))

Peak crowds — Lollapalooza, Air and Water Show

• Festival

  Air and Water Show

  14–18 Aug · usuallyMajor festivalCrowded

  A free two-day show over North Avenue Beach in mid-August, with a full rehearsal on the Friday that most locals prefer. The whole north lakefront is the grandstand. Source ↗

Still on: Lakefront beach season (22 May – 7 Sep (usually)), Lollapalooza (28 Jul – 4 Aug (usually))

Busy — Summer break in United States

Nothing new starts in September.

Still on: Lakefront beach season (22 May – 7 Sep (usually))

Busy — Chicago Marathon

• Festival

  Chicago Marathon

  5–14 Oct · usuallyMajor festivalCrowdedClosuresBook early

  Fifty thousand runners through twenty-nine neighbourhoods on a Sunday in early or mid-October, on the flattest big-city course there is. Downtown is closed to cars until the afternoon. Source ↗

Peak crowds — Christkindlmarket, Thanksgiving break in United States

• Season

  Skating in Millennium Park

  15 Nov – 5 Mar · usuallyIce season

  The McCormick Tribune rink opens under the Bean in mid-November and is free if you bring your own skates; the ribbon in Maggie Daley Park next door is the better ice and the longer queue. Source ↗

• Festival

  Christkindlmarket

  20 Nov – 24 Dec · usuallyChristmas & New YearCrowded

  The German market on Daley Plaza opens the week before Thanksgiving and runs to Christmas Eve, with sister markets in Wrigleyville and Aurora. Free to enter, and packed after work. Source ↗

Peak crowds — Christkindlmarket, Winter / Christmas break in United States

• Hazard

  Lakefront wind chill

  1 Dec – 1 Mar · usuallyWind season

  Arctic air over an unfrozen lake is what makes a Chicago winter its own category: the thermometer understates it badly, and a walk along the lakefront path in January is a different proposition to the same walk two streets inland. Source ↗

Still on: Skating in Millennium Park (15 Nov – 5 Mar (usually)), Christkindlmarket (20 Nov – 24 Dec (usually))