Iconic Berwyn Music Venue FitzGerald's Is Up For Sale
By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 4, 2017 7:50PM
Berwyn's FitzGerald's—a staple of the Chicagoland music scene, and home to the long-running American Music Festival—is up for sale. Owner Bill FitzGerald, who bought the venue on Roosevelt Road back in 1980, is selling the club and its surrounding properties for somewhere in the $2M range, the Tribune reports
"I liken it to selling a piece of art or an antique," FitzGerald told the Tribune. "Its value isn’t just in the financial performance or the underlying real estate assets."
It also has value as a cultural landmark. For the past 36 years, FitzGerald's has been hosting an annual, independent American Music Festival over Fourth of July weekend. The event focuses on "roots/Americana music," from rock to bluegrass, according to the description of this year's festival—which could be the venue's last.
FitzGerald, who turns 65 this year, is ready to retire as the club's talent buyer, and spend more time at his properties in Wisconsin near the Mississippi River. His regulars will miss him, though. You can read their remembrances of the bar—which was very uncool and covered in velour, back when FitzGerald bought it—over at the Tribune.
This isn't the only moment of upheaval in the Chicagoland music scene this year, either. Back in February, Wicker Park's Double Door was evicted from its space on Milwaukee Avenue.