Best thing about Millennium Park besides the Bean

Free music at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion

With a plastic cup of wine in hand, Chicagoans spend their summer happy hours listening to almost-daily free concerts at the Pritzker Pavilion: classical music from the Grant Park Orchestra, the Made in Chicago jazz series, the acclaimed international Music Without Borders series. Beneath Frank Gehry’s awe-inspiring brushed stainless-steel web, audiences are cocooned in the Pritzker’s state-of-the-art LARES sound system, and the Great Lawn—which accommodates 7,000 people in addition to the 4,000 seats—usually has just enough room to squeeze in the masses who come to see occasional major acts like The Decemberists and Wilco.

Audience choice:
Pritzker Pavilion

Best audience comments:
“Clueless tourists. Endless amusement.”; ” No animals allowed”; “Well Cloudgate aside, I would say the best part of Millennium Park is the melodic medley of languages spoken when you walk through it with your headphones off.”; “How everyone ignores that it was years late, millions over-budget and anchored by a restaurant owned by a politically-connected family that pays no property taxes on it.”; “Kids that pee in the water in front of the photo fountain.”

Best of Chicago 2009