The venue exists because a mayor bulldozed an airport in the middle of the night: when Meigs Field's runway was carved up in 2003, the lakefront peninsula it occupied went back to parkland - and gained a concert bowl with the best skyline backdrop in American music. Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island, at 1300 South Linn White Drive beside Chicago's Museum Campus, opened on 24 June 2005 with Earth, Wind and Fire. The design is unique among major venues: because Northerly Island is a nature reserve, the amphitheatre is a temporary structure, erected each spring and dismantled each fall, its season running roughly May to October. The original 1.7-million-dollar build by Valerio Dewalt Train seated about 8,000 across three grandstands and a general-admission pit. The 2013 expansion changed its class: a 3-million-dollar reconfiguration rotated the stage and added a sloped 22,000-capacity lawn, lifting total capacity to 30,000 and letting the venue - then FirstMerit Bank Pavilion, Huntington Bank Pavilion since 2017 - host the biggest touring acts of every summer. Jimmy Buffett reopened the expanded bowl; Farm Aid 2015 brought Willie Nelson, Neil Young and Dave Matthews to the island. The setting is the sales pitch: the open east side faces Lake Michigan, the skyline rises directly behind the stage, and the Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium and Soldier Field are all within a ten-minute walk - no other big American amphitheatre sits this deep inside its city. Practical notes: Live Nation operates the venue with a season of roughly 30 to 40 shows; parking is tight - the Soldier Field garages and the 146 bus are the standard plays - and lake weather is real: evenings turn cold off the water even in July, and lawn ticket holders should pack layers. The island's own story adds depth to a lawn ticket: Northerly Island is the only built piece of Daniel Burnham's 1909 plan for a chain of man-made leisure islands along the lakefront, hosted the 1933-34 Century of Progress World's Fair, and spent five decades as Meigs Field - the airport Mayor Richard M. Daley famously demolished with midnight bulldozers in March 2003, stranding sixteen planes. The concert bowl and the adjacent nature preserve are the direct descendants of that night's work.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 1300 S. Linn White Drive, Chicago, IL, United States, 60605

Website: https://www.pavilionnortherlyisland.com

Cover Charge: 1

Capacity: 30000

Opening Date: 24/06/2005

Serves Food

Outdoor Area

Accessible