North American City Spotlight: Chicago, Illinois

AuthorityTicket.com's City Spotlight

Chicago, Il is the city spotlight pick of the week. Chicago is the largest city in Illinois with a population of about three million people. Chicagoland, as it’s sometime called, is one of the great American cities that offers a huge spectrum of entertainment. From sports to the stage, ballet to blues or from comedy to concerts, there is entertainment for everyone in Chicago.

There’s so much to do here that a blog post could never do it justice, but I’ll highlight some terrific things here anyway. There’s so much to do in Chicago that a book could be written about it, and in fact there’s been a few! Check out Chicago City Guide by Karla Zimmerman or Frommer’s Chicago 2007 by Elizabeth Canning Blackwell.

I’ll try to summarize some of the great things you can do in Chicago. I’ll also provide links to many of the things I mention here that will give you schedules, times, dates and tickets to many of the fun things happening in Chicago this year.

Comedy & Improvisation in the Windy City

First, if you’re into stand-up, live comedy and improv, then check out Second City on North Avenue. It’s a famous comedy club that is a blast late night and I’ve heard that the final show of the night is free! A number of Saturday Night Live and Mad TV comedians got their start at Second City. Another cool live entertainment venue is I.O, also known as Improv Olympic, which are the names of two renowned comedy troupes.

Chicago’s Museums

If you’re looking for a cultured daytime activity in Chicago, there are some excellent museums to visit. There’s the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Field Museum which is downtown by Grant Park on the waterfront. Field Museum is a natural science museum. And of course there’s the Museum of Science and Industry in Hyde Park. They have a fully restored German u-boat submarine in which you can actually walk around.

Chicago’s Michigan Avenue area is great for shopping. And two very high-end restaurants are Charlie Trotter’s and Tru, and also consider easting at Gibson’s Steakhouse.

The Double Door is a small venue that has national music acts and is a terrific place to see your favorite band. And of course Chicago is known for the blues. The famous House of Blues is a little touristy, but certainly has some great blues.

Another really cool thing to do is the architectural boat tours on the Chicago River. The river goes through a part of the downtown that has many old buildings, where you can see lots of neat old structures while on the tour. Interestingly, this was the boat tour that got dumped on by the Dave Matthews Band, literally. The DMB tour bus was traveling over the Chicago River and dumped it’s waste while it was directly over a boat on one of the tours, and the passengers got nailed! It was very embarrassing and ironic for Dave and the gang since Dave Matthews is a big environment proponent.

Chicago Sports

Chicago, IL is a definitely a baseball town as well, with two MLB teams: the Chicago Cubs and the White Sox. You can sometimes walk up to the Wrigley Field box office and buy Chicago Cubs tickets on the day of the game (if it’s not a popular game). In the Fall, maybe a Chicago Bears game would be in order, or if it’s the winter, consider buying Chicago Bulls tickets or Blackhawks hockey tickets. Of course the Chicago Bulls haven’t been quite the same since Jordan left, but they are still an exciting team to watch live.

Here are some college football teams in tickets in Illinois:

Chicago Broadway

And Chicago offers a Broadway scene second only to New York City. You’ll have a good chance of seeing a Broadway tour at places such as the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, LaSalle Bank Theatre and the Cadillac Palace Theatre. Here’s a list of current or upcoming shows in Chicago:

Live Music in Chicago
Many national acts schedule a stop in Chicago when planning their concert tours. Actually, almost all national tours include Chicago. So you can rest assured you’ll be able to see a great live concert any time of year. Here are some of the artists and bands that will stopping in Chicago in the coming months:

From sports to theater, or from comedy to concerts, Chicago has it all. Whether you’re going to be visiting the Windy City or you live here, you owe it to yourself to explore all the different things to do for fun in Chicago. Learn more about the upcoming Chicago events here.