HIGHLAND PARK, IL - HIGHLAND PARK, IL - For any Regioners who were planning on doing the approximate one hour and 15 minute drive from Northwest Indiana to Ravinia Festival this summer; the 2020 season at the outdoor concert venue in Highland Park, Illinois has been canceled.
Nick Pullia, Director of Communications for Ravinia Festival says calling it off was a difficult decision for many reasons.
"It was especially hard because Welz announced earlier this year that after 20 years at Ravinia that this would be his final summer, so it's kinda extra sad for me to see that what was supposed to be his victory lap summer isn't going to happen, but we had to measure the safety of the audience and the artists, you know many artists are canceling their tours on their own anyway," Pullia says.
Pullia says Ravinia leadership didn't want to be the lure that attracted 15,000 people out
someplace when society and government leaders still don't believe that it is safe to gather in groups of 10 or more.
And putting on a big concert for 10 people or 50 or even 1,000 is very cost prohibitive, he says.
"So unlike a lot of venues that you know an orchestra is an orchestra, or if Sheryl Crow wants to get her guitar out and do a video she can do that," Pullia says. "Ravinia is a presenter so we don't have artists on-hand who can do this virtual thing for us or can do a limited capacity concert for us and so we were kind of stuck in the situation where we can't have crowds, we can't have the true Ravinia experience, we really weren't capable of doing it at all."
Pullia says as heart breaking as it is to lose the Ravinia experience this one summer, administration thinks it's the safest thing to do. So see everyone in 2021.
