Chicagoist reports on the all-night city event Chicago had last week and some strange planning:
Billed as the first all-night event of its kind in America, how on earth did the organizers not plan for an all-night event? How do you advertise that the North Garden of the Art Institute and Millenium Park will be open all night and then start turning people away? How is it possible that we actually heard someone over a bullhorn tell people at the corner of Randolph and Wabash to “Go home!! Disperse!!??”” It seemed counterintuitive to have an all-night celebration of the Loop and not have the Brown Line running all night — especially when you already have a dissatisfied CTA clientele. To have what seemed like poor publicity, yet not have venues big enough to hold the crowds that came to see the exhibits and performances.
Others have noted that since this is the first time the event has taken place that it’ll be better next year. But isn’t this just like the 4th of July events with throngs downtown needing to be managed better? It does seem weird that the all-night event really wasn’t all-night.
More:
It baffles me that there were NO food vendors at this event. They should have at least had an entire block closed off and dedicated to food vendors like most street festivals in Chicago. I was eager to eat fried things of all sorts so I’d really hate myself the next day.
And:
The one thing that made me really, really mad about looptopia is thinking about how the STUPID DOWNTOWN NOISE ORDINANCE kept the event from being the amazing party it could’ve been. i know what this is all about: all the new high-rise dwellers in the loop have been complaining non-stop about events like lollapalooza, and the noise it generates. i don’t understand how people can buy a condo in the center of the US’s third largest city (?) and expect to get crickets at 3am. i don’t care how much you paid for your luxury condos – suck it up and realize that urban living means living in a urban environment, noise and all.
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