It’s Labor Day weekend and many folks are headed out of town. But for those of us sticking close to home, there are plenty of events to head out to all weekend long:
COUNTRY THUNDER
County music superstar Toby Keith headlines the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, 19100 S. Ridgeland, Tinley Park, at 7 p.m. Sept. 4. Also on the bill: Eli Young Band and Chris Janson. $25.25-$89. Visit livenation.com
COASTING IN THE PARK
The North Coast Music Festival runs through Sunday in Union Park. Among the headliners: Widespread Panic, Lili K, Chromeo, The Chemical Brothers. Check out our picks for the festival here.
ALL THAT JAZZ
It will be hot, hot, hot in Millennium Park through Sunday thanks to the 2015 Chicago Jazz Festival. Artists from across the country and across the globe are scheduled to perform. Check out our picks here.
ON THE FRINGE
The sixth annual Chicago Fringe Festival will feature 197 performances of 47 shows in 5 Jefferson Park venues. Everything from comedies, dramas, dance pieces, musicals, performance art and the unclassifiable will be presented by ensembles and artists from Chicago and across the country. All shows at the fest, which runs Sept. 3-13, are uncensored. Shows run from 7–11 p.m. weekdays and from 1 p.m.–11 p.m. on weekends (and Labor Day). Kids Fringe shows and activities, appropriate for ages 12 and under, are also featured and will run noon-4 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday. For tickets, performance locations and a complete schedule visit chicagofringe.org
REMEMBERING A CHICAGO HERO
A new documentary profiles a Chicagoan who worked to better lives in the Jim Crow South decades before the civil rights movement took hold. Sears president Julius Rosenwald bankrolled the construction of nearly 5,000 schools for mostly rural African-American children between 1912 and 1932. The so-called “Rosenwald schools” educated future leaders including Maya Angelou and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.). They’re among the voices offering testimony in “Rosenwald,” opening Friday at Landmark’s Century Centre and Renaissance Place.
WATCH THE WARDROBE
Lenny Kravitz scored the wrong kind of headlines when his plants split open during a concert last month, exposing his otherwise uncovered naughty bits to thousands of fans in Stockholm. Presumably his trousers will be secured for Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. concert at Ravinia, with opening act Andra Day. For tickets, go to ravinia.org.
WELCOME TO THE JANGLE
Among the likely highlights of the Jangleheart Circus comedy festival will be a variety show starring staffers from the meme parody site Clickhole and a set by “Late Night With Seth Meyers” writer-performer Conner O’Malley. The Sept. 3-5 fest brings dozens of acts to the iO, Annoyance, and CIC theaters. For the full lineup, see jangleheartcircus.com.
THAT’S ITALIANAfter the neorealism movement of the 1940s, Italian filmmakers took the theme in different directions, as demonstrated in a series running Sept. 4-30 at the Gene Siskel Film Center. “Cinema all’italiana: Films From the Post-Neorealist Era” begins with a 6 p.m. Friday screening of Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s “Padre Padrone,” a Palme d’Or winner based on the shepherding youth of author Gavino Ledda. For the 10 other films, see siskelfilmcenter.org.
