Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Community Development Investment Journal

January 2015
The Great Chicago Fire FestivalChicago, IL
By Jim Lasko
Overview
In 2014, Redmoon produced the inaugural Great Chicago Fire Festivala new signature event
presented in partnership with the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events
and the Chicago Park District. The Festival celebrated the city's resurgence following the devastating
Great Fire of 1871, and honored the grit and resilience of Chicagoans who continue to rebuild and
strengthen the city today. To engage residents, Redmoon partnered with community-based
organizations in 15 Chicago neighborhoods to produce a series of free public arts events called
Summer Celebrations. These events culminated on October 4, 2014 with a large-scale urban spectacle
on the main branch of the Chicago River. The festival was a citywide expansion of Redmoons mission
to transform residents experience of the city by activating the community through creativity and
empowered democracy.
Context for Creative Placemaking
Chicago is a city of neighborhoods; there are a total of 77 officially defined community areas within
the city limits, and each of these communities is unique in terms of its demographics, socioeconomic
status, culture, history, and challenges. For the 2014 festival, Redmoon partnered with 15 of them. Of
these 15, 12 have a higher below-poverty percentage than Chicagos average, and 11 have higher
unemployment rates than the city's average. The majority are located on the citys south and west
sidesareas that predominantly lack the same cultural infrastructure and resources as the north side,
where many of the citys largest cultural institutions are located.
How Creative Placemaking Helps
Since its founding in 1990, Redmoon has deployed spectacle art and performance to bridge differences
and transform the way people see and understand public spaces. Throughout its 24-year history,
Redmoon has performed in 49 Chicago neighborhoods at more than 180 locations. Redmoons
expertise lies in its ability to create machines and installations that amplify the voices of its
collaborators and the communities they serve. Redmoon has also developed strong partnerships with
groups and community members that traverse geographic and economic boundaries. As a new
signature event, The Great Chicago Fire Festival seeks to be a source of civic pride; prompt regional,
national, and international tourism; foster new avenues of communication between people,
community based organizations, and neighborhoods; and provide citywide opportunity for creative
expression.
Redmoon amplifies existing neighborhood events and public spaces by bringing massive
spectacle machines into the streets. One of Redmoons most recent contraptions, designed especially
for the Festivals Summer Celebrations, is the Mobile Photo Factory: a mobile photo booth housed
inside a horse trailer that captures beautiful portraits of community members. Before entering the
booth, participants respond to the prompts I overcome and I celebrate on chalkboard
placards, and then have their pictures taken with theses placards, commemorating the event.
Participants are encouraged to share their photos with one another and post them to social media. In
its past neighborhood engagements, Redmoon learned how successfully food can bring people
together. Drawing on this experience, Redmoon created the Cyclone Grill: a massive grill carousel
that cooks and serves food, and is equipped with a DJ station and two microphones. The Grill
generates audience interest and provides a performance platform for local poets, musicians, and
speakers. Community members are also invited onto the Grills stage to share sentiments they wrote
on their Mobile Photo Factory placards, and voice concerns to their fellow residents.

Implementation
Official work began on the Festival in April 2013, when Executive Artistic Director Jim Lasko
announced, alongside Mayor Rahm Emanuel, that the inaugural festival would be launched in 2014.
In the summer of 2013, Redmoon hired a festival producer and a director of community arts to lead
the early planning and development stages, including initial community outreach. That winter,
Redmoon released an RFP to identify community-based organizations that were interested in
partnering with the group to bring the festival to their neighborhoods; based on the responses,
Redmoon finalized 15 official neighborhoods and 36 community-based organizations to target in the
inaugural year. In the Spring of 2014, Redmoon further expanded its team by hiring canvas leaders to
manage the Summer Celebration events, bringing on talented undergraduate fellows from the
University of Chicago to support the canvas leaders, as well as the expert builders and makers tasked
with constructing the large-scale machines and sculptures for the October 4th finale. Redmoon applied
to be a program provider through After School Mattersa Chicago nonprofit that offers teens free
high-quality, out-of-school apprenticeship and internship opportunities to gain skills in the arts,
science, sports, technology, and communications. Ultimately, Redmoon launched three After School
Matters programs, and worked with nearly 90 teens from across the city to help build the Festivals
infrastructure.
Progress to Date
In its inaugural year, the Great Chicago Fire Festival is focused on building a strong foundation for it
to grow in the coming years. Redmoons key measures of success include: How many local
community members participate in the Summer Celebration events? Of that number, how many
joined us at the river for the October 4th finale? Post-event, how many of our partners feel that the
festival was successful within their community? Redmoon is also working with its partners at the City
of Chicago to conduct an economic impact study on the festivals October 4th finale, to understand the
extent that the event attracted regional, national, and international tourism to the city.