Looptopia
By Chris • Updated Jan 22nd, 2008 • Category: Chicago Events
After attending Looptopia 2007 and Looptopia 2008, I am declaring Looptopia an official bust. Most of my time at Looptopia has been spent standing on my toes in poorly arranged venues trying get a peak at the action.
I arrived at Looptopia 2008 at 9:30pm and was greeted with the information that the organizers had already given out all of the Looptopia wristbands, which were required for attendance to any events that took place after midnight. We then stood around in Daley Plaza until 10pm, where the Midnight Circus was performing - the problem is that there not a raised stager or bleachers, so only the first few rows of people could see anything. We moved to several different areas, trying to catch a glimpse of what the circus was doing, but we could only see the occasional acrobat jumping into the air.
Mid-way through the Midnight Circus performance at Daley Plaza, we headed to Palmer House to see Looptopia’s Broadway in Chicago Cabaret - but when we arrived, it was impossible to get a view of the stage. After fighting through the crowd for 20 minutes, the cabaret started and we left.
It was now 11pm and we headed to Millenium Park - surely the park was open during Looptopia, right? Wrong. Security guards were there to make sure that nobody could enjoy the crown jewel of Chicago’s park system during Looptopia.
After my experience at Looptopia 2008 and the fiasco that was Looptopia 2007, I won’t plan on attending Looptopia again - but I have created a list of 5 Ways to Fix Looptopia that might provide some ideas for creating a better event in the future.
Stay tuned to Chicago Hot Blog for updates on Looptopia 2008 or get new posts emailed to your inbox.
Looptopia
Wikipedia : Looptopia is a annual event taking place in the city of Chicago. It premiered on the evening of May 11 through the morning May 12, 2007 that resembled Nuit Blanche held annually in Paris. The event took place in Chicago’s central business district, the Loop. There are many universities, museums, restaurants, parks and tourist attractions in the loop which made Looptopia more interesting. It was the first event of its type held in Chicago or the United States. The 2nd Looptopia event is scheduled for the evening of May 2nd, 2008.
Chicago Events
Chicago Summer Events
Chicago May Events
Pitchfork Music Festival 2008
Lollapalooza 2008
Navy Pier Fireworks
wow, sounds to me like if you had a little thing called PATIENCE
you would have had a blast @ the Palmer House event.
David -
I’m not sure what patience had to do with it - we could not see the performance area from wherever we stood. We could have stood there for an hour, we still wouldn’t have been able to see anything. The venue simply wasn’t good for a performance.
Thanks for checking out the site and for taking the time to leave a comment.
-Chris
Hey Chris: Despite the other two comments, I agree with you entirely. I think these gliches come from a group of people more interested in being on a “board” or committee (i.e. getting corporate sponsors, putting it on their resume, etc) than people who know what it is to stay out all night and organize something for people that do. My friends and I arrived around 9:30 too because really, if you got there at 7, could one really want to hang out with THAT crowd all night? If we did get there early, I would’ve been over it by midnight and found something more interesting to do. Well, I guess that’s what happened anyway. And I am assuming that those people who did get the wristbands early were vomiting from whatever they were drinking from brown paper bags in some parking lot before the wristbands were required. I live downtown, so Looptopia’s poor planning wasn’t so much a burden, but imagine if you came from farther away and planned this as your night? L.A. just had “Glow” - another all night party and it was planned much better.