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After I officially declared Looptopia a bust, I figured that if I’m going to criticize, I should at least offer some ideas for how the event can be improved. As I was fighting for a view of Looptopia 2008, I began to make a list of 5 Ways to Fix Looptopia.

5 Ways to Fix Looptopia
1) Keep Large Venues Open – I am sure there is a lot of bureaucracy surrounding Millenium Park and The Art Institute, but when these venues close at 11pm, it puts a real damper on the festivities. Millenium Park should be full of street performers and music, but instead we are met with a police lock-down. Without Millenium Park and The Art Institute open all night, Looptopia will face an uphill battle.

2) Choose Proper Venues – It just seems silly to me that Looptopia would use the Palmer House for a Broadway in Chicago Cabaret, when there are three theaters – operated by Broadway in Chicago – that could much better showcase these talents. One of the theaters could be used as the venue, and they could hold several 30 minute showcases throughout the night, allowing people to enter and exit the theater before and after the show.

Having venues with a raised stage or raised bleachers would allow many more people to actually see the entertainment.

3) Listen to The Music – When a raised stage / bleachers are not an option, then I would suggest going with a purely musical act. There was a great band playing at Daley Plaza while we were trying to catch a glimpse of the Midnight Circus, but nobody was paying attention to the band because we were all jumping around trying to see the jugglers. I suggest eliminating the large performance area and allowing people to get right up by the stage to enjoy the music.

4) Pull an All-Nighter – Looptopia claims to be a “dusk till dawn celebration” and I think many people would take advantage of that celebration if they were allowed to. We arrived at 9:30pm and were told that there were no more After-Midnight Wristbands available. I predicted that this would be a problem, and the Wristband Shortage of course reduced the number of people who could attend the later events – and was a big disappointment.

5) Save The Date – I would suggest moving Looptopia to a later date. I understand that they might not want to compete with the summer weather, but Looptopia 2007 fell victim to frigid temperatures and Looptopia 2008 was almost rained-out. Moving Looptopia to a weekend in early June would help alleviate some of the weather problems and bring many more people out to the event.

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