It's here! The Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival!

Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival (MAAF) is this weekend (July 20-22)!  Chicago has so many festivals every weekend, but the MAAF strives to be more than just another run-of-the-mill street fest. It celebrates art, culture, music, and food. It's a chance to show the city that our little neighborhood has an incredible community that we want to share with everyone. The Festival is our invitation to the city to come and share the very best of Logan Square!

If your feeling overwhelmed by the breadth of what this one-of-a-kind fest has to offer, here is a suggested itinerary to help you out!  Whether you have 3 days to explore or just one--get out and enjoy the beautiful weekend, this itinerary is only a suggestion. There is plenty more going on than what we have listed here--check out the website, pick up a program on Friday and create your own itinerary!

Three-Day Itinerary of Fun:

Friday:

Get an early start after work and head to the festival center to kick off your weekend with some Revolution Beer and Lula Cafe Sangria. The bands start at 5:15, stay for one or stay for them all. Grab some food from one of the food trucks and walk around the festival center and check out a few of the featured art exhibitions and the MAAF marketplace of artists and merchants. Headliners, Disappears, perform at 9:00, so be sure not to miss what is sure to be an incredible performance!


Saturday:

After brunch at Revolution Brewing (or one of the other festival wristband promotion participating restaurants), stop the fest's south end and spend the afternoon browsing the Threadless Make Great Market on Belden. Sip on an afternoon sangria from Lula's booth and check out the all female-fronted band lineup on Cole's stage, starting at 1pm.  Later in the afternoon, hop on the California blue line and head back to the festival center at the Logan stop to spend some time checking out the art exhibitions by Spudnik Press, Penguin Foot Pottery, Latitude, Comfort Station and AnySquared. Stick around for dinner at the fest and catch NOMO at 9pm. At 10pm, head over to the Hairpin Arts Center (a quick 1/2 mile walk from the monument) and dance the night away to DJ Jesse de la Pena, all while sipping on Tito's craft cocktails. Make sure to get your souvenir MAAF photo taken in the Magnolia Photo Booth! 


Sunday:

Grab brunch at Cafe D'Noche (15% off with your festival wristband!) and head to the Hairpin Arts Center to check out some performances. Stop by the Gap Outlet on your way to check out Chicago Ballet's performance in the windows. There will be dancers in the windows at 10:30, 11:45, 1:00 and 2:15.   Flamenco Chicago performs at the Hairpin at 12:15, followed by performances all afternoon by Dance Attack!, Bare Bone's Theatre and more.  

Looking for some family fun? Spend the morning in the Festival center with Rhythm Revolution, a family-friendly drum circle and take your kids to the Family Activities tent where there will be origami, face painting and jewelry making. Then head over to the arts center in the evening for a great jazz lineup by Elastic arts and Chicagomusic.org.  Make time for the Good Stuff House community map and story booth in the festival center!

End your weekend with friends and beers in the festival center and don't miss the incredible Ana Tijoux (if you need convincing, check out a performance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv66cnvdy_w).  If you're still not ready to go home on Sunday evening, head to The Owl, for an official closing party and share some drinks with your friends.

MAAF Food and Drink:


We all know the feeling… you go to a festival so excited to hear your favorite band or see that art piece everyone is talking about, but when it is comes to food everything is a little... blah. There are only so many Bud Lights and deep fried items you can consume before your taste buds start to rebel. 

But at the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, we celebrate all the arts, including the culinary arts! Last year we were the first festival in Chicago to have food trucks and we will be continuing that tradition this year.

At the festival center you’ll find all the tasty food trucks. This year we have:

Cevapcici- delicious Balkan sausages with pita bread

Taquero Fusion- sumptuous and yummy tacos

Miko’s Italian Ice- (a local favorite!), cool, refreshing and all natural Italian ice

Suzie’s Fun Foods- classic carnival favorites

Intelligentsia- the city’s best iced and hot coffee to keep you going

You’ll need delicious drinks to wash down all the yummy food offerings. Revolution Brewing beer will be available at all three hubs! The beer tents will be pouring: Rosa, Cross of Gold, Eugene Porter, Bottom up Wit, and Anti-Hero IPA. Along with beer you can sip on refreshing Lula Café’s Sangria at the Festival Center and South End Cole’s Stage area at Belden.

Share your experience with the city! Upload photos to Facebook, twitter and Instagram! Our hashtag is #MAAF2012

Pick up an official MAAF program from any of the hubs! And for tips on how to navigate the festival by foot, car or public transit, visit the website:  http://milwaukeeavenueartsfestival.org/directions.html. 

Don't forget to call the boss, and let him/her know that you won't make it in to work on Monday!  Happy festing!