Independence Eve
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Fireworks Spectacular
When: 9:30 p.m. (Grant Park Symphony concert begins at 7:30 p.m.) Thursday, Grant Park, Columbus Drive and Jackson Boulevard.
Free; 312-744-3315.
Expected attendance: Everybody. Seriously. Estimated attendance is 1 million but it’s not like they really keep count.
What: The City of Chicago doing what it does best: having a festival and blowing stuff up. Indiana’s Melrose Pyrotechnics will be staging this year’s 20-minute show, which will call upon 5,000 individual aerial devices. Stuff will blow up at altitudes up to 1,200 feet, as the Grant Park Symphony sets the mood with Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” and other tunes to blow stuff up by.
But you, and 999,999 other people, will be looking for that primo view. Make friends with someone who lives in a downtown high rise with a lake view. The full deal will be visible from as far north as Navy Pier, and as far south as the Museum Campus. Buckingham Fountain is prime ground, but that’s where everyone will want to be. The Museum Campus is an excellent spot, with tiered, grassy hillsides that make perfect bleachers. As for how to get there . . . do anything but drive.
Fest-O-Meter: You’re kidding, right? There’s stuff blowing up everywhere, for 20 minutes, backed by perfectly timed music. The barge is out on the lake, so you have an unobstructed view of the goodies if you’ve found a good spot. This is one heck of a fireworks display. But when you are caught in the madding throngs, clogging the lakefront, yearning to be free, exhilaration yields to exasperation. So, a 10 for the explosions and a 0 for the logistics average out to a . . .
RATING: 5
FEST-O-METER
SNOOZE FEST: 0-2
FIZZY FEST: 3-5
FESTOLICIOUS: 6-8
FESTUPENDOUS: 9-10
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Throughout the summer, the Friday section will be applying the Fest-O-Meter to different festivals.