A Look Back at 2015: The Events

It's the last week of 2015 and like many, we here at Sloopin are in a reflecting mood.  With that said, we will be counting down some of the bigger stories and trends we saw this year around the neighborhood.

First up - Events!

Grateful Dead - Fare Thee Well Tour

Yes, every year our neighborhood always seems to ground zero for big Chicago events since we have have Grant Park and Soldier Field in our back yard, but 2015 seemed to be ratcheted up a notch.

So what was the biggest event, in our mind?   It had to be the Grateful Dead Fare Thee Well tour that invaded Soldier Field for a 3 night stint over forth of July weekend.  If this didn't seem like a big deal to you, maybe this post will help you understand - these three shows had the highest grossing ticket prices worldwide in 2015 - crazy!

Another big, new event was the 2015 NFL Draft, which was held in Grant Park in late April - early May.  While this may not have had the historical cache of the Dead concert, it probably had a bigger and broader national audience.  And like it or not, it sounds like the 2016 draft is coming back (however, we've heard some rumors that the NFL may be reconsidering given our next "event").

It wasn't all roses in the Sloop in 2015 either.  Various streets and intersections around the neighborhood were ground zero for the Laquan McDonald protests in late November.

In case you've been living under a rock, a video was released showing a Chicago Police officer repetitively shooting and eventually killing Laquan McDonald.  While the legal system is still dealing with this case, public opinion has been loud for a variety of reasons - but especially the fact that many feel the local government was trying to avoid releasing the video.

Beyond those three events, there were some others that we would be remised to not mention.  Obviously Lollapalooza is impossible to miss if you live in the Sloop.  The 2015 rendition wasn't unusual in terms of the event, but we did learn that it will be expanding to 4 days in 2016.

The Dew Tour utilized our new skate park in June and as you may remember, the Stanley Cup visited our hood again for some celebrating.

Obviously there were a ton of other events, but these stuck out in our mind.  Did we miss anything else that you deemed big?