Events
The park has been the site of many large civic events. In 1911, it hosted the major Chicago International Aviation Meet. In 1959, to celebrate the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway and a related Interntional Trade Fair, Elizabeth II, disembarked here from the Royal Yacht Britannia, giving "Queens Landing" its name. The park was the scene of clashes between Chicago Police and demonstrators during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Pope John Paul II celebrated an outdoor mass to a large crowd here in 1979. Championship celebrations for the Chicago Bulls were staged here during the 1990s. The park was the location for President Barack Obama's Election Day victory speech on the night of November 4, 2008.
Annually, the park hosts some of Chicago's biggest festivals including The Taste of Chicago—a large food and music festival held each summer; the Grant Park Music Festival; Chicago Jazz Festival and the Chicago Blues Festival. The park is also the site of the start and finish lines of the Chicago Marathon.
Since 2005, Lollapalooza, a popular series of rock concerts has taken place in the park. Lollapalooza is under contract to be staged at Grant Park through 2018.
Read more about this topic: Grant Park (Chicago)
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“By the power elite, we refer to those political, economic, and military circles which as an intricate set of overlapping cliques share decisions having at least national consequences. In so far as national events are decided, the power elite are those who decide them.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)
“One cannot be a good historian of the outward, visible world without giving some thought to the hidden, private life of ordinary people; and on the other hand one cannot be a good historian of this inner life without taking into account outward events where these are relevant. They are two orders of fact which reflect each other, which are always linked and which sometimes provoke each other.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“At all events there is in Brooklyn
something that makes me feel at home.”
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972)