Three summer staples—Chicago Outdoor Film Festival, Chicago Criterium bicycle races and the ever-popular Venetian Night—may be gone in 2010. The Mayor’s Office of Special Events—the folks who bring us a raft of Grant Park festivals every year—confirmed that those festivals are not on its 2010 calendar. “It’s certainly not anything we want to do, but we were told to make [budget] cuts,” says Cindy Gatziolis, spokeswoman for the Mayor’s Office of Special Events. “This year, we found ways to hide all the cuts that we made, but 2010 will be different.” The city’s budget won’t be finalized until December 31, so nothing is definite yet. Gatziolis adds: “If [someone from the] corporate world wants to save the day, we’re here and listening!”
No more classic movies by moonlight? No 53rd annual boat parade? We say: It’s a tragedy! What do you think about the cuts?
I’m distraught!! How could they cut off Venetian Night?! That was one of my favourite summer events!! It’s such a tragedy! :(
They likely figure that these events are wildly popular and most able to get healthy corporate sponsorship. Of course struggling families and workers take top priority but if these well-loved festivals are indeed eliminated, they will sorely be missed.
So we were going to sponsor the Olympics, that would cost how much again…?! And yet we can’t fund free movies in the park?!
And are we really going to stop a Venetian Night tradition - really?!
How is this city’s money being managed??
I hole-heartedly agree with Chris Gray. These events are high-profile, well-attended, and could be subsidized by corporate sponsors. Sadly, sponsor dollars that fund these events could conceivably take away sponsor dollars from other, less popular but more culturally rich not-for-profit organizations. The arts will undoubtedly suffer as corporate benefactors start looking for a return on investment vs. simple investment in cultural communities.
This is really unfortunate. These are three outstanding events. I hope that come 1/1/10 the funding is still there.
The conspiracy theorist in me thinks this is our mayor getting back at all of the Olympic nay-sayers… no Olympics, no cool events.