Taste of Chicago to be held in July for first time since 2022
After being bumped to September for three straight years because of the NSCAR Street Race, the Taste of Chicago is reclaiming its longstanding dates in July, the city announced.
The Taste will be held July 8-12 in Grant Park, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events announced on Tuesday of this week.
In 2023, 2024, and 2025, the Taste was pushed to September because of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race, officially called the Grand Park 165. Around the time of the July 4th holiday, the auto race has taken over the roads in and around Grant Park.
Last year, NASCAR announced the race would not return to downtown Chicago in 2026, after three years in Grant Park, and organizers would work with the city to find a possible new date for the race and a more efficient plan in 2027.
This July 4th weekend, NASCAR will instead hold races at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet.
The Taste of Chicago has been a tradition for 46 years.
In 1980, Mayor Jane Byrne started the festival on North Michigan Avenue. It ran for only one day that year.
In 1981, the Taste moved to Grant Park, and over the decades, it grew to a nearly two-week food festival. Its initial weekend at the end of June used to coincide with the Chicago Pride Parade and often, the Crosstown Classic game between the Cubs and the White Sox. Its 10-day run carried on through the 4th of July.
The Taste reached a record attendance of 3.68 million people in 1999.
But the following decade, the Taste began its decline.
In 2008, a gunfight broke out as the crowd left the show. A 20-year-old man was killed in the gunfight near Dearborn Street and what is now Ida B. Wells Drive — leading to safety concerns about the festival.
In 2010, the onetime climax of the Taste, the July 3 Fireworks Extravaganza with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, was eliminated in an effort to save money.
By 2012, the Taste had been scaled back to five days — though still at the same general time of year. The Taste was called off in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, but resumed in 2022 year — in July as usual, and as it will be once more in 2026.
The concert schedule for this year's Taste has not yet been announced.