Taste of Chicago might move out of Grant Park this summer with NASCAR coming
CHICAGO (CBS) -- NASCAR is in, and Taste of Chicago could be out.
The food festival has been a summertime fixture in Grant Park for more than 40 years – but now, it may be forced to find itself a new home.
As CBS 2's Marissa Perlman reported Tuesday night, NASCAR will kick off July 4th weekend this year with a first-of-its-kind street course race downtown through Grant Park.
The start/finish line and pit road for the race will be along Columbus Drive at Buckingham Fountain, with the race course including portions of Columbus Drive, Balbo Drive, DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Roosevelt Road, Michigan Avenue, Congress Plaza Drive, and Jackson Drive, taking drivers through Grant Park, and within blocks of Soldier Field, which hosted the only other NASCAR race in Chicago in 1956.
But that poses a bit of a problem for the Taste of Chicago, which would be happening right in the same space around the same time. There isn't room for both, and now, the double-booking leaves a lot unknowns for the Taste.
"You can't access Grant Park when there's a raceway constructed around it," said Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd).
Reilly, who represents the Loop and the Near North Side, said he got a surprise call Monday night – not from the city, but from Navy Pier officials. The alderman said the Taste of Chicago will move instead to Polk Bros. Park near Navy Pier.
Reilly also said unlike in recent years, when the festival had been held after Independence Day, this year it will be held just before July 4th, at the same time as the NASCAR race on July 1 and 2.
"This was a big surprise," Reilly said. "It's my hope that Navy Pier will reject this."
Given that the NASCAR race will shut down multiple roads around Grant Park, the alderman said the overlap is a "logistics disaster."
"I think it's going to be a traffic disaster, and really hard to manage from a public safety perspective," Reilly said.
As part of the frenzy, Reilly said the City Council Special Events Committee has postponed a vote to approve the summer calendar – something that is normally a formality.
The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), which organizes the festival, would not confirm or deny plans to move Taste of Chicago.
"Taste of Chicago is a beloved summertime tradition that is indeed happening this year. We are finalizing details for 2023 and will be announcing dates and locations for DCASE's signature summer events in the coming weeks," DCASE spokeswoman Madeline Long said in an email.
The Taste of Chicago in Grant Park is a tradition that goes back a very long time.
If you had tuned into our news on July 4, 1980, you would have seen the late Bob Wallace chowing down at the first-ever Taste of Chicago, for Channel 2 News. That Taste of Chicago ran for only one day and was held on Michigan Avenue.
But in 1981, the festival moved to Grant Park. Except for 2020 and 2021, when it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Taste has been held in Grant Park each and every year since.
The Taste welcomes about 40,000 visitors a year, and it is where Eli's Cheesecake got its start – beginning with that first festival on Michigan Avenue, and in Grant Park all the time since.
"Taste of Chicago to us is our birthdate; our birthplace – so we're very interested in its future," said Eli's Cheesecake Company President Marc Schulman.
And while the future of the Taste is uncertain, Schulman said his family and team will adapt.
"These past few days have demonstrated how important Taste of Chicago is to Chicagoans," Schulman said.
Ald. Reilly is proposing moving the event's date, but keeping it at Grant Park. In the meantime, officials with Navy Pier say as of now, there is no agreement between the city and Navy Pier.