13-Jun-15 – River Theater is open!

With no fanfare at all, Chicago Department of Transportation opened the last block of Phase 2 of the Riverwalk to the public on Friday afternoon. CDOT snapped a photo of some of River Theater’s first visitors at 12:55 p.m.

Minor work, says CDOT, will continue in the three blocks now open from State Street to LaSalle Street – Marina Plaza, The Cove, and River Theater.

Phase 3 will start “in the next few weeks,” says CDOT. That will extend the Riverwalk from LaSalle to Lake Street. Access to the Riverwalk between LaSalle and Wells is already closed.

(Above) Steps of River Theater, seen from the top, along Wacker Drive. (Below) Mid-way down steps.

On Wednesday, this year’s Make Music Chicago event announced the Riverwalk would be among 80 sites at which free concerts are performed on June 21. That is the first day of summer, the longest day of the year, and Father’s Day.

The day-long, city-wide, free music event, now in its fifth year, will include 200 performances by a variety of groups in more than 20 Chicago neighborhoods, as well as 700 cities throughout the world. Six of those performances will be on the newly-opened rooms of the Riverwalk.

There will also be music east of State Street, near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and under the Wabash Avenue Bridge, from 11 a.m. to noon.

Outside the Chicago Theater on State Street, The Sinatra Mobile Piano Bar will give Chicagoans a chance to belt out Sinatra tunes from 1:30 to 2:40 p.m.

Other locations include Millennium Park and Chicago Cultural Center. In Chicago, Rush Hour Concerts and Chicago Park District present the event, which is inspired by a music festival in France.