Mayor Rahm Emanuel today justified cutting Taste of Chicago in half, saying the number of days do not determine the appeal of the lakefront restaurant showcase.
“It’s what we fill those days with and what quality of both food and experience we bring to the families of the city of Chicago,” Emanuel said at an unrelated news conference
Taste will be trimmed from 10 days to five this summer. And it will be moved to mid-July, losing Independence Day as its anchor.
The long-running food festival has been scaled back the last few years in the wake of a fatal shooting near the Taste in 2008 and city budget woes
The mayor also altered the Chicago institution by closing Taste a half-hour earlier most nights, at 8:30 p.m. Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said that would give officers more daylight to clear the festival grounds and usher people toward trains and buses
Taste has been shrinking since the fatal 2008 shooting of 19-year-old Courtney Thomas downtown as a crowd dispersed after the fireworks.
In 2009, the grounds were fenced in and people entering Taste were subject to search. That year, 3.3 million came through the gates, down from 3.5 million in 2008, according to Illinois Restaurant Association estimates.
The numbers fell to 2.6 million last year without the fireworks.
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