A Chicago councilman has declared he will work to keep large-scale electronic music festivals out of his North Side ward, reviving the uneasy relationship between City Hall and the genre the city helped shape on a global scale.Ad 0:00 Click for sound 0:00 / 0:00 Alderman Timmy Knudsen made the pledge after the inaugural Lakeshore Arts & Music Festival drew noise complaints from residents of the city’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, who said bass from the lakefront event carried for several blocks, according to Block Club Chicago.
The new house music festival ran from 2-10pm on June 19th and 20th with a main stage lineup led by Elderbrook and D.O.D, plus more than 50 Chicago DJs across multiple stages.In his ward newsletter, Knudsen reportedly said his office is “in conversation” with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs to keep future festivals of that scale out.
A spokesman drew a line between live music and “an event of this magnitude, duration, and sound profile” in a dense lakefront area near a hospital and the North Pond nature sanctuary.Not everyone in the ward backs a ban.
One Lincoln Park resident who called herself “a huge EDM fan” told the outlet that the effort is a “cop-out,” arguing the real failure was the city not vetting who runs events in the park and how.The irony writes itself.
House music was born in Chicago, at the Warehouse, then exported to the world while the city turned on it at home.A 1987 city ordinance forced the all-night juice-bar parties that incubated the sound to close at 2am, and in 2000 the City Council unanimously passed an anti-rave ordinance that authorized $10,000 fines against promoters and DJs.
Chicago invented the sound, sent it abroad, fined the DJs who kept it there, and only later put Frankie Knuckles’ name on a downtown street sign.The pattern has a more recent track record, too.
Wavefront Music Festival was effectiv...