New Year’s Eve is quickly approaching and we want to help you have the best celebration ever. We’ve looked at some of our favorite guides, like the one over at Time-Out Chicago, and pulled in some of our own ideas to give you a mix of options to guarantee a good time, no matter what you’re into.
Since we give food tours we’re going to start with the thing dearest to our hearts— food. For those of you looking for a low-key evening or just a place to fill your stomach before the parting begins, there are plenty of restaurants in Chicago offering dinner specials including:
For a full list and details visit Timeout Chicago.
Below are some of the parties, DJ sets and concerts that stood out to us.
Beauty Bar’s New Year’s Eve celebration is giving all the millennials out there a chance to party like it’s the days of Y2K again. Break out your stock pile of toilet paper and your analog clock and head over to dance the night away to all the best jams from the early to mid 2000s. Tickets include 2 hours of open bar and a midnight toast.
If anyone knows how to pick great dance music it’s probably the members of OK Go. While you won’t be seeing the full band in Chicago anytime soon, you can trust Tim Nordwind and Dan Konopka (rhythm) will be spinning something great. You can head over to the Plus HeadQuarters Beercade delivers on both the beer and the arcade games so there’s tons to keep you entertained all evening. You can snag tickets over at the HeadQuarters website!
Redmoon performance art and event group have put together an altogether experience this year because it’s what they do best. Redmoon’s annual celebration is a party divided into the four elements with live bands, acrobats and live performers with confetti cannons (yes we said confetti cannons). As with most of the parties on this list, food and drinks are included!
Not into the bar/club scene but love public radio? No problem. WBEZ has joined forces with Vocalo for a NYE bash at the Victory Gardens Biography Theater. They’ve curated a pretty eventful evening including jazz and hip hop DJ sets, live jazz music, signature cocktails and stories from The Moth just to name a few things. Bonus: If you’re a WBEZ member tickets are cheaper for you!
If you’re less about dance music and more about liking to party and party hard Andrew W.K. at Thalia Hall may be your best bet. After all, most of his memorable songs are about partying. Enough said?
If you’re into the classic punk rock scene, and you know your music you’ll want to spend your evening at The Metro with Bob Mould, former lead of Hüsker Dü, who has been described as being on a very awesome roll lately.
For those of you with kids the earlier family show at Comedy Sportz held 5pm-7pm includes a great comedy improv show and a countdown to “midnight” with a cider toast. The earlier time makes it a great option for keeping the late night celebration at home, or for parents who have more grown up plans later on.
For a mix of grown up and underage fun head over to Roots Handmade Pizza for mozzarella sticks, salad and of course pizza. It’s great food you can both get excited about. Plus their New Year’s Eve party includes a four hour open bar, which means the parents can sneak a drink or two in during the celebration as well.
These were some of our favorites, but we highly recommend heading over to Time-Out Chicago for even more ideas. How will you be celebrating this year? Let us know of any great events we’re missing and maybe we’ll add them to the list!
Stroll through Chicago's architectural epicenter then enjoy a light lunch and a dessert treat.
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