Where can you hear 13 hours of Jazz for FREE?
At the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Saturday, September 25, 2010. The event runs from 1 pm to 2 am and takes place in 13 landmark and unexpected venues across Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, from the Oriental Institute to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, to the James W. Wagner Main Stage on the Midway Plaisance, just south of 59th between Ellis and Woodlawn.
We will have 20,000 jazz lovers coming to Barack Obama’s stomping grounds to hear 150 musicians performing throughout the day. And all of this is wonderful (okay, for full disclosure I am the Festival Manager this year, so it better be wonderful!) but the real story is the amazing, wonderful, delightful, energetic, and all around NICE volunteers.
350 volunteers will fill over 400 volunteer slots, contribuing 1,600+ hours of volunteer service to make sure that everyone at the event has an amazing time. Volutneers come because they love Hyde Park, because they love Jazz, because they are new to town and thought it would be a great way to get involved. The come for 3 hours, 5 hours, even 12 hours at a shot to make sure the day runs smoothly.
So, if you are at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival this Saturday, which I hope you will be, and you see the volunteers in the Bright Green Volunteer shirts–please be sure to say thank you…they are the most amazing and kind people I have ever met!
Photo by Marc Monaghan
