Back in January, at the peak of Chicago rat hole-mania, people were making pilgrimages to a rodent-shaped indentation in a Roscoe Village sidewalk.
Some left coins and candles; others even got engaged and married at the attraction, in the 1900 block of West Roscoe Street.
The only thing left to do was host a music festival at the site.
Though it began as a joke six months ago, the “Rathole Music Fest” was held Saturday, a few miles away at Bourbon on Division in Wicker Park.
Outside the venue, a giant inflatable rat greeted attendees, who paid about $25 to see several local bands, including Malört & Savior and The King of Mars. As the bands played upstairs, a poet known as Kro, The Traveling Typist, read rat-inspired poetry on the first floor. The event’s official, mascot, Rat B———, was spotted in a rubber rat mask.
The decor was not as rat-themed as some may have expected: There were LED mushrooms and spider webs hanging from the ceiling. But attendees could leave with Rathole Music Fest T-shirts, rat earrings and stickers resembling the Chicago flag — with tiny rats replacing the stars.
One of the organizers, who identified himself as Ricky The III, said the event represented “rattiness.”
“It’s like trash acceptance,” said Ricky The III, 30, of Albany Park, who owns a music studio called The III Studios. “We’re all kind of trash sometimes, and we all have to accept that, and we’re all going to love each other even if we’re all a little trashy.”
Ricky The III’s two friends, Tony Cairo and Andrew Massih, helped him put the program together.
Multiple attendees were happy to celebrate the Chicago rat hole, which the city removed in April, with promises that it would be preserved. On Saturday, there was no trace of the indentation at its former site — only a few blocks of new sidewalk, along with new fencing and planters.
“I love how ridiculous Chicago is,” said Molly Lartz, 38, of Ukrainian Village, who attended the fest with her partner, Josh McKinley. “I think the rat hole is fun. It’s kinda like Chance the Snapper. We just latch on to these silly things.”
Lartz also said she understood why the rat hole was removed, but was happy it was being preserved.
If it were up to festival attendee Aitan Licht, the rat hole would be in the Chicago History Museum.
“I think people might take rats as a sign of uncleanliness or dirtiness, but I think people in Chicago embraced that rat hole as a sense of pride in the rats of our city,” said Licht, 29, of Lake View.
Licht said he heard about the Rathole Music Fest on Facebook.
“I thought it was a cool and fun way to honor this strange phenomenon,” he said. “At first I didn’t know if it was going to be a real event.”
Ricky The III never intended to go through with the festival; he created the Facebook event in jest.
But then 6,000 people responded. And then nearly 150 artists emailed him.
“It very quickly felt like it could be real,” he said. “And then I talked to my team of people and made it happen.”
That team included his high school friend Josh Melfi, 30, who lives in the Northwest suburbs and handled the decorations.
“It’s super-unique, and that’s how things trend,” Melfi said of the event.
“The rat hole was something that made this one spot in Chicago unique. It made it beautiful, whether you find beauty in it or not.”
Both beauty and weirdness were hallmarks of the rat hole, according to Bonnie Foxglove, who was scheduled to perform a burlesque show as a “rat queen” with a “rat jail” stage prop at the fest.
Foxglove, 34, of Logan Square, also summarized the fest in one sentence: a reminder “to have fun and enjoy the silliness in everyday life.”
