Our fair city’s music needs your help.

As you may know, today’s economy is not doing well. This is forcing the city to have to make budget cuts where ever possible. That means cutting funding for some of Chicago’s free summer music festivals including Blues Fest, Jazz Fest, the World Music Festival, Summer Dance, and Millennium Park concerts such as Music Without Borders and the very cool Downtown Sound series, which only this past summer offered free performances from St. Vincent, Shellac, Dirty Projectors and the Feelies at the park’s beautiful Jay Pritzker Pavillon.

So help out. Sign the “No Cuts to Chicago Music, Arts & Cultural Programs!” petition and preserve Chicago’s free music. The petition has reached over 1,000 signatures and is nearing the goal of 1,500!

The petition’s full text is after the jump.

Music, arts and cultural programs presented by the city of Chicago are threatened by severe budget cuts. We can’t let this happen–our city is known around the world for its free music programming that not only brings enjoyment to hundreds of thousands of fans and adds to the richness of our civic culture, but also generates jobs and income for local businesses.
If you value programs like Blues Fest, Jazz Fest, the World Music Festival, SummerDance and Millennium Park concerts including Music Without Borders, Downtown Sound and much more (see below for a list), please do your part. City budget hearings are underway, and you can make a difference. If you do nothing, these programs could be cut back sharply.

Please help today, right now, by doing one or all of the following:

1. Send an e-mail. Copy the following paragraph–

I am deeply concerned about funding cuts to city music and cultural programming. I enjoy the free festivals, series and concerts presented by the city. These concerts showcase Chicago music to the world, and bring a world of music to Chicago audiences. They also create jobs and bring money into the local economy. I strongly urge you to fight for a city budget that does not cut funding for city music, arts and cultural programming, or in any way reduce the number of events or festival days presented in the coming year.

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

[WHERE YOU LIVE]

–then if you wish, add your own comments, sign your name and e-mail it to: megan.mcdonald@cityofchicago.org, wburnett@cityofchicago.org, brendan.reilly@cityofchicago.org, lweisberg@cityofchicago.org, kcostello@cityofchicago.org, ChicagoMusicFunding@gmail.com. (This will reach Megan McDonald, executive director of the mayor’s office of special events; alderman Walter Burnett, chairman of the cultural affairs committee; alderman Brendan Reilly, whose district includes Millennium Park and Grant Park; commissioner Lois Weisberg and assistant commissioner Kimberly Costello of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Friends of Chicago Music–that’s us!).

2. Tell your friends. Please forward this entire e-mail message to everyone in your address book who cares about music in Chicago.

3. Sign our petition. Visit http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/SaveChicagoMusic.

4. Contact your alderman. Look up your city council representative at https://webapps.cityofchicago.org/StickerOnlineWeb/pageflows/wardLookUp/WardLookUpController.jpf, then write or call them with the same message as above.

5. Join us on Facebook. Become a supporter at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Chicago-Music/167233092321.

Thank you!

Friends of Chicago Music

P.S. City budget cuts could harm such events as:

City of Chicago Festivals: Blues Festival, Gospel Festival, Jazz Festival, SummerDance, World Music Festival

Millenium Park Events: Downtown Sound-New Music Mondays, Dusk Variations-A Chamber Series, Edible Audible Picnic, Grant Park Music Festival, Made in Chicago-World Class Jazz, Music Without Borders

These are only SOME of the artists that have appeared over the years:

Rock-Andrew Bird, Shellac, the Dirty Projectors, Calexico, the Feelies, Bobby Bare Jr., Will Oldham, Bill Callahan, the Ex, St. Vincent, the Sea and Cake, Fleet Foxes, Red Red Meat, Tortoise, Chuck D and the Bomb Squad

Jazz-Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, Betty Lavette, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Dave Douglas, Charlie Hunter, John Scofield, Medeski Martin & Wood, Roscoe Mitchell, Benny Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, Anthony Braxton, Betty Carter, Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Dawkins, Von Freeman, Johnny Frigo, Slide Hampton, Roy Haynes, Dave Holland, Elvin Jones, Wayne Shorter

Blues and Soul-Albert King, B. B. King, Bill Doggett, Bo Diddley, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Bobby Rush, Buckwheat Zydeco, Buddy Guy, Calvin Jones, Carey Bell, Carl Perkins, Chicago Blues Museum All Stars, Chuck Berry, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Dr. John, Eddie Boyd, Eddie Vinson, Eddy Clearwater, Etta James, Hubert Sumlin, James Cotton, Jimmy Rogers, John Lee Hooker, Johnnie Taylor, Johnny Winter, Junior Wells, Keith Richards, Koko Taylor, Little Milton, Luther Allison, Magic Slim, Matt Murphy, Memphis Slim, Mick Taylor, The Neville Brothers, Otis Rush, Pinetop Perkins, Ray Charles, Robert Cray Band, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Son Seals, Staple Singers, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Sugar Blue, Sunnyland Slim, Taj Mahal, Willie Dixon, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

World-Seu Jorge, Tinariwen, Anoushka Shankar, Youssou N’Dour, Bajofondo, Orchestra Baobab, Balkan Beatbox, Dengue Fever, Chicha Libre, Amadou & Mariam, Goran Bregovic Wedding and Funeral Orchestra

DJs-Maga Bo, Samy Ben Redjeb, Miles Cleret, Cheb I Sabbah, Bobby Friction, DJ Rekha