{"id":2113456,"date":"2025-10-24T19:27:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T19:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2113456"},"modified":"2025-10-24T19:27:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T19:27:37","slug":"chicagos-only-classical-music-street-festival-celebrates-10-years-08-23-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/chicagos-only-classical-music-street-festival-celebrates-10-years-08-23-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago\u2019s Only Classical Music Street Festival Celebrates 10 Years | 08\/23\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Access Contemporary Music (ACM) proudly presents the\u00a0<strong>10th Annual\u00a0Thirsty\u00a0Ears\u00a0Festival,<\/strong>\u00a0Chicago\u2019s only classical music street\u00a0festival, returning August 23\u201324, 2025. The\u00a0festival\u00a0transforms Wilson Avenue into a vibrant celebration of classical music, community, and culture. Join us for a weekend of extraordinary music, delicious food and drinks, and a celebration of community at the\u00a010th\u00a0Annual\u00a0Thirsty\u00a0Ears\u00a0Festival!<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Thirsty\u00a0Ears\u00a0Festival\u00a0offers an exciting lineup of performances from stellar ensembles and soloists, featuring music from classical greats like Beethoven and Shostakovich to contemporary composers like Reena Esmail, Kaija Saariaho and more.\u00a0In addition to music, enjoy craft beer, wine, food trucks, vendor booths, and activities for kids,\u00a0creating a festive, family-friendly atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>Festival highlights include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><u>Main Stage Performances<\/u>:\u00a0Enjoy a diverse range of classical music from renowned artists such as the Chicago Sinfonietta Brass Quintet, acclaimed banjoist Michael J. Miles playing Bach, hammered dulcimer player Joel Styzens,\u00a0festival\u00a0favorite Michael Hall, and many more.<\/li>\n<li><u>Kid Zone Activities<\/u>:\u00a0Featuring an Instrument Petting Zoo, sing-alongs, and engaging performances for children by Jenny Viets, Dawn Marie\u2019s Toddler Jam, Laura Doherty, and Singalong Sprouts.<\/li>\n<li><u>Special Events<\/u>:\u00a0Don\u2019t miss the Mini Sound of Silent Film\u00a0Festival\u00a0on Saturday night at 9:30 PM, showcasing contemporary scores for silent films.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The event takes place\u00a0<strong>Saturday, August 23rd<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">f<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rom<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<u>2:00 PM \u2013 11:00 PM<\/u><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0&amp;\u00a0<\/span><strong>Sunday, August 24th<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">f<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rom\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><u>1:00 PM \u2013 9:00 PM<\/u>\u00a0at\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1758 W. Wilson Ave., Chicago, IL 60640 (Note: In the event of rain, the\u00a0festival\u00a0will move to All Saints Church on the same block, with seating for 200 people).\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A $10 suggested donation for entry is requested, with proceeds benefiting the ACM School of Music, a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering musical creativity in the community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sponsors:\u00a0<\/strong>Thirsty\u00a0Ears\u00a0Festival\u00a0is made possible by the generous support of the Driehaus Foundation, Alderman Matt Martin\u2019s Office, Gaylord &amp; Dorothy Donnelley Foundation,\u00a0Illinois Arts Council, All Saints\u2019 Episcopal Church, Shure, Yamaha, PianoForte Chicago, Greater Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce, Lincoln Square Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce, Grant Park Music\u00a0Festival,\u00a0O\u2019Shaughnessy\u2019s Public House,\u00a0and the ACM School of Music. Our media partner is CHIRP Radio, and our beer partner is Dovetail Brewing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About Access Contemporary Music (ACM):\u00a0<\/strong>ACM believes that the music of our time deserves a wider audience and strives to bring contemporary classical music to new listeners through innovative performances and educational programs.<\/p>\n<p>ACM\u2019s innovative programs include a music venue in a former 7-Eleven in Lakeview called The CheckOut, the Sound of Silent Film Festival, the Thirsty Ears Festival, a nationally televised PBS series called Songs About Buildings and Moods, Meditative Mondays, Relevant Tones, collaborations with Open House Chicago, and the ACM School of Music, which teaches over 300 students across four storefront locations in Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>For more information about the\u00a0Thirsty\u00a0Ears\u00a0Festival\u00a0and Access Contemporary Music, please visit\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.acmusic.org\/?mc_cid=c31c62f013&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/www.acmusic.org\/?mc_cid%3Dc31c62f013%26mc_eid%3DUNIQID&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1755211787316000&amp;usg=AOvVaw36z6c9UnLfV69s5FGIaXks\">www.acmusic.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.choosechicago.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Access Contemporary Music (ACM) proudly presents the\u00a010th Annual\u00a0Thirsty\u00a0Ears\u00a0Festival,\u00a0Chicago\u2019s only classical music street\u00a0festival, returning August 23\u201324, 2025. The\u00a0festival\u00a0transforms Wilson Avenue into a vibrant celebration of classical music, community, and culture. Join us for a weekend of extraordinary music, delicious food and drinks, and a celebration of community at the\u00a010th\u00a0Annual\u00a0Thirsty\u00a0Ears\u00a0Festival! The\u00a0Thirsty\u00a0Ears\u00a0Festival\u00a0offers an exciting lineup of performances from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2113459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2113456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Chicagos-Only-Classical-Music-Street-Festival-Celebrates-10-Years.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2113456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2113460,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113456\/revisions\/2113460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2113459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2113456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2113456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2113456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}