Ravinia Park is in the suburb of Highland Park, located just outside of Chicago, Illinois. The private park is home to a variety of indoor and outdoor performing arts facilities. The park gets its name from the ravines that run parallel to the park along the shores of Lake Michigan. Every year since 1936, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has held its summer music performances in Ravinia Park. The months of June through September, the park hosts many different musical performances and concerts, which are popular with residents as well as visitors.
Ravinia Park was first opened in 1904 as an amusement park by the A.C. Frost Company. The park was first designed to attract visitors and to get them to use the newly established Chicago and Milwaukee Electric Railroad. At the time it was first opened, the park had a baseball diamond, electric fountain and a building with a dining room and dance floor. When the railroad went out of business, the park was in danger of being closed. In 1911, a group of Chicago businessmen formed a corporation and bought Ravinia Park.
The Ravinia Festival that is held in the park every year is the oldest outdoor music festival in the United States. The festival plays hosts to about 600,000 music lovers every year. There are 120 - 150 special events held during the festival all throughout the summer months. The festival has hosted many artists over the years such as Janis Joplin, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Luciano Berio, Isaac and Frank Zappa, Oscar Peterson and Aaron Copland. The Ravinia Festival includes many symphony concerts, ballets and operas which are also held in the park.
Ravinia Park sits on thirty-six acres of parkland and lawn. Concert goers to the park, will find open seating areas located all over the park. The park allows guests to bring picnic baskets, alcoholic beverages and bottles of wine to be brought in, making Ravinia Park one of the few venues in the country where this is allowable. The local grocery and specialty stores in the area even offer ready-to-eat, "Ravinia picnics'' for sale.
The Pavilion is an open-air theater that seats 3,200 visitors. The theater has state of the art video, audio and lighting which rivals many indoor theaters in Chicago. Bennett Gordon Hall is an indoor concert hall that is home to the Stern Institute for Young Artists. The 450 seat venue showcases up and coming young musicians. The program includes three areas of musical concerts; jazz, singing and classical music featuring piano and string instruments.
Ravinia Park has educational and community programs designed to connect music to the lives of residents and visitors to the city of Chicago. The park is the best way for guests to appreciate the finest in ballet, drama and various musical performances that take place each year in Chicago. For well over 100 years, Ravinia Park has stood as a landmark for music lovers in the city of Chicago. Ravinia Park continues to hold some of the best festivals and concerts in Chicago and many people find visiting the park to be a unique and enriching experience.
