 Media Credit: Ravinia Festival Tucked away in the forests of northern Illinois, fields of friendly libations and family picnics accompany a summer-long series of first-rate performances. Ravinia, the premiere music venue on the Northshore is a mere el-ride from the city.
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Gilberto Gil, Brazil's 66-year-old Minister of Culture, didn't always have such an amicable relationship with his native country. The bossa nova musician who performed with Os Mutantes, Yes and Pink Floyd, spent three months in a Rio de Janeiro prison in 1969 for playing music perceived as a threat to the military dictatorship in power at the time. He was released under the condition he leave his country, and didn't return for three years.
Of course, I didn't know any of that when I got on the Metra headed towards Ravinia Park to see Gil perform. In fact, I didn't even know what bossa nova music was, but had already assumed I probably wouldn't like it. My interest in seeing Ravinia (in addition to the free ticket someone had given me) warranted the Metra ride (also free, thanks to the inefficiency of the overwhelmed conductor), and before I knew it I was walking through a grassy knoll littered with bottles of wine, containers of cheese and middle-aged Northshore yuppie-types quickly losing their ability to stay upright in their lawnchairs.
For those unaware, Ravinia is an annual summer festival held in Highland Park at a massive complex of theaters, tents, small concession areas, a pavilion, and a huge lawn. It features a mix of mostly classical performances in addition to some jazz and pop. This year, for example, Ravinia's headliners include An Evening of Beethoven performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Beach Boys, the Temptations and Feist. Performances happen in Ravinia's pavilion, which seats 3,200, though most concert-goers will forego the pricier pavilion seats in lieu of the considerably cheaper lawn space. The trade-off, however, is that from the lawn you can't actually see the stage or any of the performers. Lawn squatters are instead encouraged to bring elaborate picnic sets with them so that the surrounding music is more peripheral rather than the focus, which becomes the food and booze.
2008 Woodie Awards
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