CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO/AP) — Next year's Taste of Chicago and the Air and Water Show are in limbo.
Special Events Commissioner Mark Kelly told aldermen during a budget hearing on Thursday that no money has been allocated in Chicago 2021 budget for the annual Taste of Chicago food festival and the Air and Water Show.
Kelly said the two events haven’t been canceled, but the approximately $9 million it takes to run them isn’t in his department’s spending plan.
Both the Taste, which takes place in July, and the Air and Water Show, which takes place in August, were canceled this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Events such as the Taste usually are profitable for the city during normal years, because of hotel rentals by visitors to the city and their spending at restaurants and other businesses, Kelly said.
If Taste of Chicago is canceled in 2021, it would have a huge effect on the city, Kelly said.
“The value to the city is over $100 million in economic value,” he said.
Cancellation would also do damage to more than 3,000 Chicago vendors, artists and musicians that rely on the event, Kelly said.
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Special Events spokesman Jamey Lundblad said the city plans to go ahead with house and gospel music, blues and jazz festivals next year.
The special events budget is funded through hotel taxes and other tourist-driven sources. With the pandemic hurting tourism, only a little more than half the $40 million the department was counting on for 2020 has come in, Kelly said, adding the department’s 2021 budget will total about $25 million.