Chicago Live! brings city's best talent to Navy Pier for weekend of performances

CHICAGO (WLS) -- "Chicago Live!," returns to Navy Pier Saturday, Sept. 23, and Sunday, Sept. 24. More than 600 artists, representing 80 Chicago-based performing groups, will perform back-to-back on three stages and other sites throughout the Pier. Chicago Live! 2023 is presented by The Pritzker Foundation, with generous support from Fifth Third Bank and Peoples Gas.

This year marks the third year for the festival, which launched in 2021 to reconnect audiences with Chicago's vibrant performing arts community following 18 months of devastating pandemic-related closures. Performances span every artistic genre from music, dance, and theatre, to spoken word, improv, vocal performance and more. Chicago native and Grammy Award-winning soul, gospel, and R&B pioneer Mavis Staples, hailed by NPR as "one of America's defining voices of freedom and peace," will headline this year's festival.

Artists and companies new to Chicago Live! this year include: (alphabetically) Aerial Dance Chicago, Aloha Chicago, Melody Angel, Ballet Folklorico Sones Mexicanos, Bravelsoul Movement, Breakbeat Creatives, Celeda, Chicago Tap Theatre, DanceWorks Chicago, Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas, Filament Theatre, Ron Haynes' GAME CHANGERS, The Happiness Club, Nataya Dance Theatre, Nico Rubio's Three Thirty Three, Poetry Foundation, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, Mavis Staples, Svet, Teatro ZinZanni, The Baton Show Lounge, Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, Third Coast Percussion, Too Much Molly, and Water People Theater.

Returning are: About Face Theatre, The Actors Gymnasium, Adrian Dunn Singers, American Blues Theater, Ayodele Drum & Dance, Black Ensemble Theater, Blue Man Group, The Chicago High School for the Arts, Chicago Children's Theater, Chicago Dance Crash, Chicago Fringe Opera, Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Chicago Opera Theater, Chicago Philharmonic, Chicago Repertory Ballet, Chicago Samba, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Chicago Sinfonietta, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Congo Square Theatre, Culture Shock Dance Chicago, Dee Alexander, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, DJ Readerz, Ensemble Español, Forward Momentum Chicago, Giordano Dance Chicago, Hiplet Ballerinas, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, iO Theater, Joel Hall Dancers, KF Jacques, Kokandy Productions, Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago, La Escuelita Bombera de Corazon, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Mandala South Asian Performing Arts, Meher Dance Company, Mercury Theater Chicago, MOMENTA Dance Company, Muntu Dance Theatre, Old Town School of Folk Music, PARA.MAR Dance Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre, Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, Red Clay Dance Company, Soul Children of Chicago, South Chicago Dance Theatre, The Seldoms, Trinity Irish Dance Company, Victor Garcia, Visceral Dance, Yin He Dance.