Park News

Ravinia Receives Grants

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We are pleased to announce that the Highland Park Public Library has received a major grant from the Illinois State Library for “Ravinia: Music Under the Stars Around the World,” a collaboration with the Ravinia Festival Association to digitize significant items from both the festival’s and the library’s collections documenting Ravinia’s history. The grant of more than $80,000, awarded by Jesse White, Secretary of State and State Librarian, will be used to create a virtual Ravinia collection available to the public on the Illinois Digital Archive, greatly expanding access to the history of the country’s oldest outdoor music festival.

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Chicago LGBT Honors Tchaikovsky

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One of the immortal composers of classical music, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, will join the ranks of such LGBT icons as Alan Turing and Sylvia Rivera with a biographical memorial in Chicago’s award-winning outdoor LGBT History Museum “The Legacy Walk.” Sponsored by Ravinia Festival, Ravinia Board Chairman Jennifer Steans, Illinois State Senator Heather Steans (7th District Democrat), and Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman and husband Jon Teeuwissen, the Tchaikovsky exhibit will be unveiled at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, on the Legacy Walk, which spans 3245–3705 Halsted St., Chicago. Award-winning jazz pianist-composer-accordionist Ben Rosenblum will give a street performance at the dedication and will make his Ravinia debut later that night. A “Dedication Celebration” will follow the installation at Sidetrack, 3349 N. Halsted St., Chicago.

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Stay Safe In The Heat

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With the recent soaring temperatures, we want you to remain safe while enjoying the nature of our outdoor venue. On sweltering days, Ravinia provides a cooling station in the Santa Fe Tent where lawn guests can relax. Patrons are also encouraged to escape the heat in our climate-controlled Lawn Bar. Learn more about heat safety here.

  • Drink plenty of water and other fluids. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to rehydrate.
  • Avoid alcohol, caffeine, and carbonated drinks. These can lead to dehydration and increase the effects of heat illness.
  • Wear sunscreen. Sunburn affects your body’s ability to cool down and can make you dehydrated.

Meet Our Hospitality Hosts!

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Where can I grab a burger? What Ravinia swag can I buy at The Festival Shop? And where is the bathroom!? For all these answers and more, look no further than our Hospitality Hosts, easily identifiable by their red “Ask me about Ravinia” aprons.

But if we’ve piqued your interest already, here are the answers to those questions:

1. Hit up 847 Burger in the market for our signature 8.47-ounce, 100% Angus beef chuck burger, cooked to perfection and topped with hand-sliced smoked brisket, melted cheddar, Texas sweet BBQ sauce, and fried pickles.

2. Sweatshirts and blankets, light-up hats, picnic gear galore and more!

3. There are four buildings with bathrooms along the perimeter of the park.

New Haute-ness: Ravinia opens the doors and floors of the Dining Pavilion with new cuisine from Chef Michael Tsonton

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For many people, catching a show during Ravinia’s summer season is all about setting up blankets and tables, spreading out a picnic with wine and cheese, and hanging out with friends on the lawn while taking in a night of great music. But for many more, the Ravinia experience includes visiting one of the handful of restaurants onsite. With the 2018 concert season, which features a different act nearly every night through September 16, Executive Chef Michael Tsonton is introducing what he calls “micro-seasonal” dining, highlighting locally sourced ingredients on a continually fresh menu, keeping in line with the musical bills.

Even more exciting, Chef Tsonton will do this all with some brand-new concepts within the rejuvenated Dining Pavilion. On the ground floor, the new Lawn Bar and its two full bars will also serve small plates and entrées, and the Ravinia Market will feature five hot stations with different cuisines, as well as grab-and-go food and drinks. And the second floor is now home to both reservation-driven restaurants: the new Tree Top and its outdoor, covered Porch will offer a micro-seasonal prix-fixe menu in serve-yourself style, and the popular Park View will feature a refreshed menu. Ravinia Magazine spoke with Chef Tsonton about the new spaces, what makes him excited and his approach to seasonal cooking.
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Ravinia Announces 2017 Season

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On March 15, Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman announced the not-for-profit festival’s complete 2017 summer lineup—more than 140 events from June 3 through Sept. 17—including the 82nd annual residency of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as well as visits by the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela with conductor Gustavo Dudamel in his Ravinia debut. In addition to Dudamel, 58 artists make their Ravinia debuts, including Stevie Nicks, John Mellencamp, Pentatonix, Common, Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr., and Ryan Speedo Green. Tickets are available to donors beginning March 22 and go on sale to the general public on May 9, exclusively at Ravinia.org. See the complete 2017 lineup at Ravinia.org.

Lucky Maya Lily Lubelfeld has free Ravinia Festival pass for life

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Young Maya Lily Lubelfeld of Deerfield will be going to the Ravinia Festival for decades—totally for free. Thanks to being the first local baby born on Aug. 15, 2004—the date Ravinia celebrated the centennial of its 1904 founding—Maya received quite the special baby present.

The day she was born, conductor James Conlon visited Maya and her mother that morning at Rush North Shore Skokie to award the infant the one-and-only lifetime lawn pass ever issued at Ravinia.

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The 2016 Season So Far: Through Social Media (Pt. 2)

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The past few weeks have been marked by some terrific performances here at Ravinia! On our lawn, we’ve seen some impressive picnic spreads, great 4th of July themed parties, life celebrations, plenty of Cornell-heads, Durannies, and so many more! We also welcomed the Chicago Symphony Orchestra back as part of its 80th summer residency anniversary. In Part 2 of our “Season So Far” blog series, we’ll show you a sampling of what’s been happening in our gorgeous park this month.

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Ravinia's Man Behind The Curtain

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Carlos Santana once told Welz Kauffman that he’d never play Ravinia. Nothing personal, he said, just that “my audience won’t come.”

The year was 2000, and Kauffman had just taken the reins at the legendary Highland Park music festival with a vision to build on the historic venue’s proud legacy of presenting a wide variety of great concerts.

“From the beginning Ravinia presented a mix of classical concerts and the cutting-edge acts of the time, whether it was Benny Goodman introducing a mixed-race band in the 1940s to Janis Joplin and Frank Zappa in the 1970s,” Kauffman said. “But as the classical programming continued to feature the brightest talents in the world, for about 30 years, we lost our way a bit on the nonclassical side, allowing it to get pretty dusty.”

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