Latest Events in Chicago(April Updated)

Lollapalooza is gearing up for a monumental return to Chicago’s Grant Park from July 30 to August 2, 2026, promising a festival experience that’s bigger, bolder, and more global than ever before. Organizers have unveiled a star-studded lineup that not only celebrates the best in pop, rock, hip-hop, and electronic music, but also marks a defining moment for the global music scene—especially with K-pop’s meteoric rise to the main stage. This year’s headliners read like a who’s who of international music royalty: Charli XCX, Lorde, Olivia Dean, Jennie, and Tate McRae—all leading the charge alongside John Summit, The Smashing Pumpkins, and The xx. According to CelebMix, these artists will share the spotlight with more than 100 performers, each taking to one of the eight sprawling stages set up across the park. The day-by-day breakdown reveals Lorde and John Summit kicking things off on Thursday, July 30, followed by Charli XCX and The Smashing Pumpkins on Friday. Saturday’s main acts are Olivia Dean and Jennie, with the festival culminating on Sunday with Tate McRae and The xx bringing the house down.

This interactive exhibition will have its international premiere in Chicago. It's an unmissable event for science enthusiasts, Pokémon fans, and anyone who loves both. Bringing together Excavator Pikachu, Professor Pokémon, and scientists from the Field Museum, the exhibition takes you on a journey through time, filled with imagination and discovery—and it's only on display at the Field Museum.

Discover how a colossal asteroid ended the dinosaurs' reign and paved the way for life’s astonishing comeback, shaping the world we know today. Meet unfamiliar creatures, explore immersive media experiences, and marvel at fossils from the Field Museum's renowned collections.

The Chicago Half Marathon is one of the most premier races from around the globe. The half and 5-kilometer events take place in September, just as the leaves are beginning to turn and the city comes alive with sweater weather and fall festivities. More than 14,000 runners register for the half marathon alone, which makes for a considerable crowd of racers, and spectators around the city. Named as one of the top ten with reason, you can’t beat the atmosphere or the excitement of the town as runners make their way from start to finish. Running up the most crowded roadway in the nation, Lake Shore Drive is shut down for 13.1 miles of the course, which offers participants a fantastic view of the skyline and all the glory of the most miraculous skyscrapers that Chicago is known for. There is nothing like the Midwestern friendliness or the numerous fans that are quick to cheer on racers and give them a helping hand to make it across the finish line.

The exhibition focuses on the life and research experiences of scientist Dr. Sara Ruane, reinterpreting the diversity of modern scientific professions and the pathways of scientific exploration through her personal story.

Over the past 50 years, Chicago-based artist Diane Simpson has created work inspired by a diverse range of sources including clothing, household objects, and architecture.Working from highly detailed preparatory drawings, Simpson develops complex geometries which she then transforms into three-dimensional objects that call into question perspective and scale. Produced entirely by hand with painstaking care, Simpson’s sculptures are intimately domestic, spatially challenging, and terrifically strange.

The "Frédéric Baez" exhibition, curated by the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, is the first comprehensive retrospective of Frédéric Baez's rich, diverse, and vibrant mid-career in North America. The exhibition showcases a large number of drawings, paintings, and installations created by the artist over the past two decades, fully demonstrating the breadth and depth of this pivotal figure in contemporary art.

The exhibition features 140 artworks, including modern and historical paintings, ceramics, and objects used for Buddhist rituals and academic research. Twenty-two of these pieces are officially designated as National Treasures or National Treasures by the Korean government. These collections are widely recognized as outstanding representatives of their kind and are highly regarded for their exceptional historical, artistic, and academic value.

This exhibition uses narrative, artifacts, and multimedia to showcase Lesley de Souza's personal growth and research trajectory, telling the story of how she developed from a childhood curiosity about nature into a conservation biologist dedicated to the protection of freshwater ecosystems.

Commissioned in 1979 and completed in 1988, the Al Strax House is a four-story cylindrical building situated on a lush hillside in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of northwest Los Angeles. Its exterior, constructed of dark brown mahogany and light brown stucco, is adorned with a row of distinctive domed windows and decorative glass bricks, making it both integrated into and out of place with the surrounding landscape. As Ireland put it, "It's like an architecture from another world, yet it seems to belong only to Los Angeles, on that piece of land near the edge of the San Fernando Valley."