8 Best Performing Arts in Chicago, Illinois

Thrill-seekers and families flock to the Chicago Air & Water Show, a lakefront spectacle featuring aerial acrobatics and daredevil water acts. See the U.S. Navy Blue Angels perform precision flying maneuvers at the two-day event in mid-August.

One of Chicago's most popular festivals, The Chicago Blues Festival in Millennium Park, is a very popular three-day, four-stage event in June. It attracts  blues greats not only from from Chicago but from around the country. It should not be missed.

The Chicago Jazz Festival holds sway for four days during Labor Day weekend in Millenium and Grant Parks.

The holiday season officially starts with the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival, a weekend-long event at the end of November with tons of family-friendly activities including musical performances, ice-carving contests, and stage shows. The fanfare culminates in a parade and the illumination of more than 1 million lights along Michigan Avenue.

Street fairs are held every week in summer. Northalsted Market Days, in August, is the city's largest street festival. It's held in the heart of the gay community of Lakeview and has blocks and blocks of vendors as well as some wild entertainment such as zany drag queens and radical cheerleaders.

The St. Patrick's Day Parade turns the city on its head: the Chicago River is dyed green, shamrocks decorate the street, and the center stripe of Dearborn Street is painted the color of the Irish from Wacker Drive to Van Buren Street. This is your chance to get your fill of bagpipes and green beer. It's more than four hours long, so you probably won't see the whole thing. 

Taste of Chicago dishes out pizza, cheesecake, and other Chicago specialties to 3.5 million people after the Fourth of July holiday.

At the weeklong World Music Festival in September, international artists play traditional and contemporary music at venues across the city.