Ravinia Festival Announces Lineup For 2021 Season
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (CBS) -- Ravinia Festival announced the highly anticipated summer lineup for the 2021 season.
Some headliners include Gladys Knight, Lake Street Dive, Willie Nelson, and Train. The full summer concert series was posted at midnight on the Ravinia Festival website.
As exciting as that is, we are still dealing with a pandemic, so Ravinia Festival president Jeff Haydon said guests can expect some differences from years past.
"Some of the things that you'll see that are different are reduced capacities. Even if everything is fully open, we're going to reopen at reduced capacities," he said.
Organizers said the venue, located in Highland Park, will open in accordance with guidance from state and local health officials and consultation with Northwestern Medicine.
All concerts at will take place outside in the open-air pavilion, with reduced audience capacity, and distanced seating on the lawn. There will also be reduced capacity in the dining facilities.
All concerts will be 90 minutes or less, with no intermission. And fewer artists will be allowed on stage at the same time.
As for your options when it comes to seating arrangements, guests will be seated in pods on the South Lawn. Haydon said it's the most comfortable seating option.
"We're actually going to get out and draw little squares on the lawn. You can buy them that seat two, four, and six people. And there'll be a special screen that will be hanging from the roof of the pavilion, so you can see what's going on on the stage," he said.
Because there will definitely be social distancing, for at least the first half of the season, seats will be sold at a percentage of capacity. There will also be seating options that leave room between each group of people.
Then there's another option.
"We're excited that we're going to offer dine-o-mite packages. So if you just want to sit on a table at one of our rooftop restaurants and look down on the action, you're welcome to do so as well," Haydon said.
Tickets for the 64 concerts go on sale in two phases this year:
- June 16 for concerts scheduled July 1 to August 15
- July 21 for concerts scheduled after August 15
You can view the full Ravinia schedule on the festival's website.
