What To Know About This Year's Epic Chicago House Music Party
By Stephen Gossett in Arts & Entertainment on May 5, 2017 4:50PM
Chicago House Party
House music remains one Chicago's greatest musical legacies—the epochal sound of disco rising from its own ashes, reborn via local innovators, predominantly queer DJs and producers of color, through the lens of emerging rhythm-programming and synthesizer technology and (at times) gale-force diva wails. Ever since around the time of pioneer Frankie Knuckles' death, in 2014, the city's institutions of cultural officialdom have much more prominently honored that legacy. One example: the excellent, annual Chicago House Party, in Millennium Park.
The city recently lifted the lid on details of this year's much-anticipated edition. The party returns to the city's front yard on Saturday, May 27 (2 to 9 p.m.). It'll feature two stages of DJs and artists, expanding beyond the Pritzker Pavilion to also include a Chase Promenade tent. The iconic Trax vet headlines Pritzker; and the tent will be headlined by RP Boo—who, yes, is technically more footwork than house, but footwork extended from house, and he's one of the all-timers, so quit splitting hairs already. Trailblazer Vince Lawrence (and noted Disco Demolition despiser) Vince Lawrence will be honored with an award. If last year's very well-attended day is any gauge, it should be a great day.
Here's the DJ schedule:
Jay Pritzker Pavilion:
2 to 3:30 p.m. Julius The Mad Thinker
3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Anthony Nicholson
4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Terry Hunter
5:30 to 6:30 p.m. DJ Pierre Live PA Hybrid Set
6:30 to 6:45 p.m. House Music Award presented to Vince Lawrence
6:45 to 8 p.m. House Legacy Project featuring special guests
8 to 9 p.m. Maurice Joshua
North Chase Promenade Tent
2 to 2:45 p.m. House Dance Workshop with Boogie McClarin
3 to 4 p.m. Chicago Skyway
4 to 6 p.m. First Lady & The Queens of House
6 to 7 p.m. DJ Jes
7 to 8 p.m. DJ RP Boo
Sweetening the pot is a series of panels and workshops, scheduled for the Thursday and Friday preceding the Party, hosted at the Chicago Cultural Center. Industry vets and lifers will pore over everything from the analog-to-digital crossover, gender and sexuality in house music and the post-quasi-mainstreamization future of the genre. Consider it all a solid appetizer for the must-do Chosen Few party down the road, in July.