Dave Matthews Band bringing Caravan festival to Chicago

The Dave Matthews Band has previously announced its own summer concert festival, the Dave Matthews Caravan, June 24-26 in Atlantic City, N.J., but its website says there will be four festivals in total, leaving July, August and September dates tantalizingly blank. On Thursday, confirming swirling rumors, Chicago’s biggest concert promoters — Jam Productions and Live Nation/Ticketmaster — will hold a press conference adding dates (likely July) for the three-day festival on Chicago’s South Side.

Steering clear of the city’s major venues and parks, the Caravan will set up shop at the Lakeside development, a former steel facility turned planned community located near the shoreline at 85th Street. (And I just saw Kanye West perform in a decommissioned power plant. Here’s to recycling the industrial age into concert venues!)

Speakers at Thursday’s announcement at the Lakeside Marketing Center, 8555 S. Green Bay Ave., include 7th Ward Alderman Sandi Jackson and 10th Ward Alderman John Pope, so the city must be on board.

The Atlantic City event features the DMB headlining, plus David Gray, Ray Lamontange, the Flaming Lips, O.A.R. and dozens others. Not sure yet how the bills in other cities will be similar or different.