Where to Rock Out This Summer at Chicago’s Upcoming Summer 2025 Music Festivals

In the city that birthed house music, Chicago summer is the season for sound, celebrating both long-running and inaugural festivals, as well as locally renowned acts and international pop culture sensations. 

Upcoming music festivals will see smaller artists perform at neighborhood events like Wicker Park Fest July 25-27, Edgewater Music Fest Sept. 5-7 and Sound & Gravity Festival Sept. 10-14, while prominent names will take the stage at events like Lollapalooza July 31-Aug. 1 and Riot Fest Sept. 19-21. 

Wicker Park Fest: July 25-27

Wicker Park Fest is celebrating its 21st year with three days of live music, art installations and local vendors. Over 50 acts will soundtrack the celebration of the neighborhood’s vibrant cultural scene July 25-27. 

Drawing in record-breaking attendance last year with over 75,000 visitors crawling down North Milwaukee Avenue from North Damen Avenue to North Ashland Avenue, this year’s fest will lure Chicagoans across the city.

Goose Island and Wake N Bakery Stages bookend the street, platforming everything from alternative rock outfits to electronic DJs, brass bands and pop performers.

Alternative band Hotline TNT will bring the shoegaze sounds of their latest album “Raspberry Moon” to Goose Island Stage as they headline Friday alongside a set produced by experiential lifestyle brand Lé Bump. 

Boston rock group Letters to Cleo, whose 1994 single “Here & Now” won a spot on the Billboard Hot 100, will deliver a nostalgic sound to center stage Saturday. Down North Milwaukee Ave, Brooklyn R&B funk musician TimaLikesMusic will energize Wake N Bakery Stage. 

Sunday will close with the ambient rock sounds of GLARE and indie duo Evening Elephants.

Wicker Park Fest touts itself as a launching pad for emerging musicians on its flier, having previously hosted artists like ODEZSA, Snail Mail and Viagra Boys amid their rise to mainstream fame. Up-and-coming acts to watch this year include indie rock bands Deep Sea Diver, Liquid Mike and MSPAINT.

Entertainment extends to the festival’s Cultural Stage, which will host performances by the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, movement by Collective Dance Fitness and a stage fighting demo from Counterfeit Combat. 

While attendance is free, the Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce encourages a $10 entry donation. The body is one of more than 30 nonprofit street fest organizers in the Save Our Street Fests Coalition, a group aimed at raising awareness on the damaging effects of rising production costs and plummeting donations on non-city funded events in the Chicagoland area.

This year, Wicker Park Fest is scaling down its footprint and lineup due to waning financial resources, the chamber’s Executive Director Pamela Maass wrote in an article published by the Chicago Tribune. 

“Chicago’s summer festivals are about more than just entertainment,” Maass said. “They are economic engines that directly benefit the neighborhoods they’re in and the city of Chicago as whole.”

Before jamming to the weekend’s lineup, grabbing a bite to eat from local food vendors, taking part in youth-oriented Kids Fest programming or shopping at more than 150 storefronts along the festival path, consider donating at the gates to support the Wicker Park community. 

Lollapalooza: Thursday-Sunday, July 31-Aug. 3

Lollapalooza is returning to Grant Park July 31-Aug. 3 for another summer of extraordinarily outrageous fun, boasting a lineup ranging from K-pop to country — and just about everything in between. 

After dropping out of his headlining spot in 2024, rapper Tyler, The Creator is returning for the 2025 season to headline the festival’s first night. Teased during the tour for his 2024 album “CHROMAKOPIA,” Tyler released his ninth studio album, “DON’T TAP THE GLASS,” July 21. 

On the other end of Grant Park Thursday evening will be headliner Luke Combs, a North Carolina country singer perhaps best known for his song “When It Rains It Pours” from his 2017 album “This One’s for You,” which has over one billion streams on Spotify. Combs also released “Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma” for the 2024 disaster-thriller film “Twisters.”

Pop artist ROLE MODEL is another notable Thursday performer, enjoying newfound fame with his most recent album recounting his breakup with internet sensation Emma Chamberlain, “Kansas Anymore (The Longest Goodbye),” released February 14. ROLE MODEL re-released the track “The Longest Goodbye” as a single July 9, featuring Laufey. 

Friday will see headliner Olivia Rodrigo taking over the T-Mobile stage. Having recently concluded her “GUTS World Tour” July 1, Rodrigo is still surfing on the successes of her 2021 and 2023 albums “SOUR” and “GUTS.” 

Also headlining Friday is nu metal band Korn, who found the height of their popularity in the ‘90s and early 2000s with hit tracks “Freak On a Leash,” “Coming Undone” and “Falling Away from Me.” 

RÜFÜS DU SOL, an Australian electronic dance music group, is set to headline Saturday evening. Blending house music with electronica, the band’s most recent releases are two remix volumes of their 2024 album “Inhale / Exhale,” which hit number three on the ARIA Albums Chart last year. 

Across the park, on the festival’s Bud Light stage, TWICE will celebrate being the first K-pop girl group to headline Lollapalooza, according to W Magazine. TWICE defines their music as “color pop” — blending bubblegum pop with electronica, hip-hop, jazz, rap and other sounds, according to Billboard. 

Also performing Saturday is hip-hop rap artist Doechii, who won Best Rap Album at the 2025 Grammys with “Alligator Bites Never Heal” — the third woman ever to win the category, according to Pitchfork.

Headliners A$AP Rocky and Sabrina Carpenter will wrap up Lollapalooza on Sunday, battling rap and pop as the closing chords of the festival. 

Though A$AP Rocky hasn’t released an album since 2018, he’s been consistent with single drops, including “pray4dagang (feat. KayCyy),” “HIGHJACK (right back)” and “Ruby Rosary (feat. J. Cole).” Rocky has teased the release of his upcoming album “Don’t Be Dumb” for over two-and-a-half years, but finally has it slated to drop this summer. 

With the track “Espresso” from her 2024 album “Short n’ Sweet” having been crowned by many as “the song of the summer” last year, Carpenter is now back for the throne with her single “Manchild” — released in anticipation of her Aug. 29 album “Man’s Best Friend.” 

Currently, only Thursday and Friday one-day platinum tickets are available for purchase for $2,130. All other passes are sold out, instead advertised under waitlists and verified resales. Ticket information can be found on Lollapalooza’s website.

Edgewater Music Fest: Friday-Sunday, Sept. 5-7

On the doorstep of Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus, more than 35 original acts and 80 local vendors will fill the streets with rockin’ live music and summer fun for the inaugural Edgewater Music Fest. 

Edgewater Music Fest will perform on North Broadway, running from West Thorndale Avenue to West Ardmore Avenue, Sept. 5-7. The festival marks Edgewater Chamber of Commerce’s first large-scale street festival in six years, according to the festival’s announcement flier. 

The event will satiate the neighborhood’s “craving” for a “dynamic street festival,” according to a statement by Executive Director of the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce Garrett Karp in the flier.

Alternative rock artist Laura Jane Grace — formerly the founder and lead singer of punk rock band Against Me! — will headline Friday alongside pop punk band The Mikey Erg 3. Grace released her most recent album “Adventure Club” July 18, touching on trauma, love and her trans identity. 

Chicago-based hip-hop artist Ric Wilson will headline the festival’s second day. Wilson’s 2019 Pitchfork Music Festival performance earned him a place on the Chicago Tribune’s “Best concerts of 2019,” which described his set as “exuberant” and made particular note of Wilson’s hand puppets, dance moves and inclusion of the Lane Tech marching band in his performance. 

Closing out the festival will be headlining band Foxy Shazam, which released their latest album, “Animality Opera,” March 20. The Ohio rock band is also set to open for pop band Waterparks at five of The Prowler Tour stops, including in Seattle, San Francisco and Las Vegas. 

Foxy Shazam’s lead vocalist Eric Nally recently made a cameo in director James Gunn’s “Superman,” fronting the Metropolis band The Mighty Crabjoys, according to Knotfest.

The festival’s other performances will run local, featuring Chicago rock and punk bands like Sludgeworth, Devon Kay & The Solutions, PINKSQUEEZE, OK Cool, Uniflora, The Brokedowns and Bev Rage & the Drinks — fronted by drag queen Beverly Rage. 

Other acts are yet to be announced. 

Admission to Edgewater Music Fest is free, but a donation of $10 is suggested to ensure the continuation of the festival and other community-centered events in Edgewater, according to the festival’s flier. 

Sound & Gravity Festival: Wednesday-Sunday, Sept. 10-14

Sound & Gravity Festival is kicking off its inaugural year with the bangs, strums and roars of more than 50 artists Sept. 10-14.

Innovative artists that span and blur genres will be heard across seven venues in the Bricktown/Avondale area, all within a five to 15-minute walk of each other, according to the event’s website. 

The five-day event marks the first major new project by Chicago musician and presenter Mike Reed since his production of last year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, which he cofounded. 

In November 2024, Pitchfork announced it wouldn’t be returning for a 20th year in a statement posted to social media. While exact motivation behind the shutdown is unknown, Reed said in a 2023 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times that declining attendance was a major concern for the festival. Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) told Block Club Chicago a festival organizer informed him Pitchfork parent company Condé Nast pulled the plug due to worsening financial obstacles. 

Reed also serves as board president of Constellation Performing Arts, Sound & Gravity’s organizer. The festival aims to advance Constellation’s mission to develop broader understanding of the interconnections between diverse musical traditions by cultivating collaboration between disparate communities, according to their website. 

The assorted musical adventure begins with Wednesday’s opening celebration performances at Rockwell on the River, headlined by Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar. The Nigerien artist, who’s stopping by Chicago on his “Tears of Injustice” tour, blends modern rock with Saharan music in the Tamasheq language.

Thursday’s highlights will include experimental folk act Helado Negro and the collaborative jazz fusion of The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis, playing at Rockwell on the River and Beat Kitchen, respectively. 

Classically trained harpist Mary Lattimore and alternative folk artist Bill Callahan — formerly known as Smog — will visit Rockwell on the River Friday. Across the river, Mary Halvorson: Amaryllis’s avant-garde, guitar-led jazz will close the night at Constellation. 

Electric guitar duo Body/Head, composed of Sonic Youth alumna Kim Gordon and experimental artist Bill Nace, are headlining Beat Kitchen on Saturday. The same night, Constellation will host jazz trio Tarbaby, while Judson & Moore will welcome experimental Animal Collective member Geologist.

The Andreas Røysum Ensemble will team up with Chicago poet and singer-songwriter Marvin Tate to close Sunday out with a soulful stand-alone set at Constellation. 

Accompanying the 48 announced acts are surprise sets curated by Electrical Audio. 

Purchase of the Sound & Gravity Festival Pass grants access to the full five-day programming for $240. A daily pass for opening performances on Wednesday is $45. Single-day passes for Thursday, Friday and Saturday programming are $95 each. A pass for Sunday’s show at Constellation Chicago is $25. All passes are available for purchase through the festival’s website.

Riot Fest: Friday-Sunday, Sept. 19-21

After briefly rebranding to RiotLand and moving to Bridgeview in 2024, Riot Fest returns to Douglass Park to celebrate its 20th anniversary Sept. 19-21, boasting over 90 artists across the three-day festival. Known for its punk-rock and metal performances, Riot Fest’s 2025 lineup mixes some unexpected artists with its predicted ensemble of performers.

Pop-rock parody artist Weird Al Yankovic will appear along with surf rock legends The Beach Boys, the hushed indie tones of Panchiko and alt-pop artist Julia Wolf throughout the three-day festival. 

Rising post-punk and indie rock groups The Linda Lindas, IDLES and The Hold Steady fill out the lineup beside iconic groups like The Front Bottoms and Bad Religion.

Friday night ends with ‘90s mainstays blink-182 and The Pogues. Celtic-punk group The Pogues is set to perform a live rendition of their 1995 record “Rum Sodomy & The Lash.” blink-182 previously headlined Lollapalooza in 2024 before the release of their tenth album “ONE MORE TIME…,” released Oct. 27.  

Similarly, Saturday’s headliners, Weezer and the Sex Pistols, will play their most iconic albums in full, according to the official schedule. Celebrating its 30th anniversary, Weezer will perform their titular debut, known colloquially as “The Blue Album.” The Sex Pistols are to play “Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols.”

Green Day will close the festival with their lively punk-rock melodies Sunday night. The rock band released their latest album, “Saviors (edition de luxe),” June 6 and are celebrating the 20th anniversary of “American Idiot.” Festival goers can likely expect a comprehensive setlist from Green Day.
Tickets on sale include one-day passes for $125, two days for $230 and three days for $340 — available through their website. The full schedule and lineup has been released on their website and social media platforms.