Chicago's Cultivate Festival returns to Lincoln Park

The third annual Cultivate Festival is back!

The free event takes place Sept. 7 in Lincoln Park (Stockton and La Salle), replete with food, music, local artisans, chef demonstrations and information about sustainability and the importance of locally sourced food items. Chipotle, the national restaurant chain, created the Cultivate Festival in Chicago in 2011 as a way to raise awareness of the impact food has on society, according to the event’s official release.

The fun takes place from 11 a.m to 7 p.m. The musical lineup includes Walk the Moon, Youngblood Hawke, Dale Earnhart Jr Jr, The Mowgli’s, and Bestfriends.

Menu items (available for purchase) include: Chipotle’s soft corn tortillas with grilled chicken or Sofritas, fresh tomato salsa, and shredded cheese; gorditas: grilled flat bread with steak or braised pork, escabeche, sour cream, and queso fresco; esquites: a salad of charred corn, shredded cabbage, and crispy tortillas, tossed with roasted tomatillos, sour cream, pickled onions, and cotija cheese; and Shop House rice bowl Jasmine rice with pork and chicken meatballs or organic tofu, charred green beans, green curry, and green papaya slaw.

The festival includes chefs Carla Hall (ABC’s “The Chew”); Paul Kahan (Avec, Big Star, The Publican, and Publican Quality Meat); Curtis Duffy (Grace); Graham Elliot (Graham Elliot, Grahamwich, and Graham Elliot Bistro); Jonathon Sawyer (The Greenhouse Tavern and Noodlecat in Cleveland); Tony Mantuano (Terzo Piano and Spiaggia); Big Gay Ice Cream; Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo (Animal, Son of a Gun in Los Angeles); and Nate Appleman and Joel Holland (Chipotle).

Visit http://chipotle.com/cultivate/Chicago.aspx# for more information.