Jay Pritzker Pavilion

The Jay Pritzker Pavilion serves as the centerpiece for Chicago’s Millennium Park, and is the new home of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and the Grant Park Music Festival.  The Festival has been a Chicago tradition since 1931 when Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak suggested free concerts to lift spirits of Chicagoans during the Great Depression.  It remains the oldest free classical music festival in the US.  The pavilion was designed by Frank Gehry. The bandshell's brushed stainless steel headdress frames the 120-foot (37 m) proscenium.  The main stage can accommodate a full orchestra and chorus of 150 members. The bandshell is connected to a trellis of interlocking crisscrossing steel pipes that support the loudspeakers for both delayed sound reinforcement as well as the LARES loudspeakers.  It includes 4,000 fixed seats and a 95,000-square-foot (8,800 m2) Great Lawn that can accommodate an additional 7,000 people.

Since its gala opening in 2004, the pavilion has consistently received high critical acclaim, and is widely recognized as the best outdoor venue for classical music in the country if not the world.