Ponchos scattered a crowd of thousands as Woodlawn’s Chosen Few Picnic got off to a rainy start Saturday, though no amount of precipitation was about to dampen the good vibes — which started as early as 6 a.m. for some dedicated house music fanatics.
As skies cleared, hundreds of grills placed under even more tents kept the festival true to its “picnic” name, and its roots as an actual family reunion.
Desiree Taylor, a 47-year-old Baltimore native, came to Chicago for the first time with eight friends who have made a tradition of traveling to house music festivals every year.
What draws them to the Chicago-born genre, she said, is the “funkier” and “more soulful” approach it takes. And the South Side festival’s “backyard family reunion feel” was brimming with it.
“[The music] takes you over, you can feel it deeper, you feel like you can be free,” Taylor said. “You can just be yourself and not feel like you have to perform a certain way.”
“It’s so loving and you can feel it,” she added. “The air just feels different.”
Desiree Taylor from Baltimore dances during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023. The Chosen Few Picnic, now one of the biggest House Music festivals in the country, was born out of a group of South Side DJs called “The Chosen Few Disco, Corp.” who played in basements and eventually gathered with family and friends for a reunion that turned into a yearly festival.
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“We could stay out here all day and all night. It’s the energy, it’s the vibe, it’s the look in everybody’s eyes. We all don’t know each other but we look at each other’s eyes and we know each other,” Taylor said.
For others, it was a return pilgrimage, bringing old house heads back to where it all started.
George “Mikey” James, a former South Sider who moved to Atlanta in 1996, said he used to attend the festival in its very early days when it took place behind the Museum of Science and Industry.
The self-described “deep house head” remembered attending parties at the Warehouse, the “birthplace” of house music which was recently granted landmark designation by the city.
“The music is spiritual,” James said. “It takes us back to times we really enjoyed, memories we created, that make all this seem like a dream come true.”
George “Mikey” James, who said he has been attending the Chosen Few Picnic since it started, poses during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023. The Chosen Few Picnic, now one of the biggest House Music festivals in the country, was born out of a group of South Side DJs called “The Chosen Few Disco, Corp.” who played in basements and eventually gathered with family and friends for a reunion that turned into a yearly festival.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Derrick Rice, a 57-year-old Georgia resident who grew up in Chicago, happened to be in the city while the festival was going on, and said he couldn’t miss it as a former “young guy who’d sneak in” to house parties in the city to watch DJs when he was a teen.
Rice said not much has changed since those early days of house music, feeling the same energy in Jackson Park that he felt in the garages and basements he used to seek out for shows.
One feeling is different, though, Rice said: house music’s queer community — which was often limited to those underground party spaces — can celebrate the genre much more freely.
“This is not new to anybody out here who’s from Chicago. This is what we do,” Rice said. “[But for LGBTQ+ members] to be able to move from having to go to a garage to party, to being wide open at the largest house party in probably the country, is a good thing.”
The crowd dances during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023. The Chosen Few Picnic, now one of the biggest House Music festivals in the country, was born out of a group of South Side DJs called “The Chosen Few Disco, Corp.” who played in basements and eventually gathered with family and friends for a reunion that turned into a yearly festival.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Performers also joined in the audience, many of them former fans of the music who ascended to making the music they loved.
Dee Jay Alicia, a Chicago house music DJ, attended the festival ahead of her afterparty performance at the afterparty at The Loft in Lincoln Park.
As she walked through the event, people came up to greet and hug her. “In this community, we’re really tight-knit. We’re just connected,” Alicia said.
The seasoned DJ said she remembered being in the front row at the festival in 2011, and being inspired to push on by DJ Jamie 3:26’s set despite the backlash she’d faced as a younger female DJ.
DJ Jamie 3:26 performs during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023. The Chosen Few Picnic, now one of the biggest House Music festivals in the country, was born out of a group of South Side DJs called “The Chosen Few Disco, Corp.” who played in basements and eventually gathered with family and friends for a reunion that turned into a yearly festival.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
“I was standing in front of that stage, not knowing in four years I’d be on that stage,” Alicia said.
In 2016, she took the stage at the festival for the first time — a “dream come true” — and got to look out at the people who had helped her get there.
“When I looked out in the audience, it was like a timeline of my evolution in house music. I could see the people I became friends with along the way, they were all there to support me and cheer me on. It was unforgettable.”
The crowd dances during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
DJ John Morales performs during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
The crowd dances during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton presents a proclamation to the Chosen Few DJs during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023.
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DJ Jesse Saunders, a Chosen Few DJ, receives a hug as he gets emotional while reading a proclamation that had been presented by Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023.
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Attendees walk through smoke during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023.
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People prepare to eat inside a tent during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Joe Sincere from L.A. poses during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023.
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DJ Stan Zeff performs during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Donna Shirley and her co-worker Michelle Elliott dance for the camera during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
The crowd dances during the Chosen Few Picnic at Jackson Park in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Saturday, July 8, 2023.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times