Northerly Island

This is not a professional music venue.
The seating is awful… Folding chairs banded together so you have zero elbow space with your neighbor. The chairs are set out on an asphalt surface that is flat as a pancake, so if you are not in the first 3 rows, all you will see the back of the dude’s head in front of you.
The beer and food are crazy expensive.
The sanitation is a joke. You go in a fancy porta potty that may or may not be clean, depending on the attendance.
I add a star for picking up the trash and the general friendliness of the staff.
Come on Chicago… find a corporate underwriter (other than First Merit) to put some money into this venue and make it more like Pritzker pavilion and less like a neighborhood festival out on in a church parking lot.

UPDATE: Little Rahm and the Park District took this barren park even further and added some hills and a Lake fed pond to spice things up. They repaved the trail which now loops around this pond that contains the original retaining wall from when the island was first built. As a nature preserve, it’s coming along decent, although the trail is completely fenced off from the prairie vegetation and trees that they are planting. The hills and the winding trail make me feel like I’m on a Southern California hiking trail or scenic road, which is a plus. Plus it’s so peaceful here, I can here the crickets and birds with only a distant noise of the City. One recommendation is that a viewing area on one of these hills, to take in that spectacular skyline view, is added. But still, I think it should’ve stayed as Meigs Field. It was a vital asset to the Loop and served as as a small relief airport for O’Hare and Midway before Dictator Daley undemocratically tore it up and shut it down on March 31^st, 2003 for the invalid excuse to protect the Loop from a ⁹⁄₁₁ style attack, whereas he really wanted a park. It was also a place where aviation enthusiasts like myself would go plane watching and aspire one day to fly, and where leisurely general aviation pilots would take their planes out to enjoy a short flight along the lakefront, like boaters do. The least the City could do is follow the Friends of Meigs Field’s «Parks and Planes» plan which would keep this park but also adds an extension lakeward to rebuild an airport there. Hey, its a start though.

Beautiful new park! I am glad they did something with this land. I was confused at first because I walked from the planetarium and the park was dull near the makeshift stadium at Northerly, but if you walk past this and towards the old airport tower you will see the work they did here. A nice brisk walk surrounded by wild flowers and waterways. May be a romantic spot for someone. I plan to come back when its warmer.

Nice to have some green space in the city, but the execution for Northerly Island leaves a bit to be desired. It can be quite nice to stroll around Museum Campus and the surrounding area, but getting to Northerly Island is a trek, and requires a lot of walking. It really depends on the day and the people, sometimes a long walk is just what you need, and other days the first 5 min are nice and the remaining 55 are not. The area has been redeveloped in the past year, and now has a more established path around the island with more permanent plantings. But there is still a large amount of grass in the middle. There is a beach, but it’s small. I’d rather go to any of the other beaches in Chicago, more space and easier to get to. Also there is a concert stage inside the park, which breaks the illusion of a green escape from downtown Chicago.

This was an average park. It’s spacious but lacked activities. The only thing that I thought was beautiful was the rocks stacked on top of each other and a couple scenic places to take a picture with the skyline in the background.
Northerly could definitely be improved to make it more appealing. To walk around the whole park, it takes about 30 minutes to an hour depending on who you’re with and if you’re stopping and taking pictures.

Security here is a joke. They will not help you at all. Don’t expect any backup here in terms of safety. I’ve been assaulted two times here by people in the crowd with security watching and security and CPD have done nothing. They will assess your injuries and send you packing. Security reassures you that you’re safe but when you go to CPD, no police report has been filed. Such a joke. Be careful and good luck.

Polar adventures! This is always a fun family outing during our frigid Chicago winters. They’re owls, sled dogs, groundhogs, coyotes, some of whom may be petted. There are talks about the various animals. There are even sled dog races. These are a little more exciting when there is snow on the ground-​there wasn’t any today. There are also crafts for the little ones. Cliff bars for those who needed a pick me up snack. At prior events there have also been storytelling sessions. There are usually 3 days-​one in December, January and February. Come on out Chicago and learn about nature and our wintr friends!

Dating protip: After dinner and dessert, come here and watch the city and Soldier Field lights come up and sparkle across the water of Burnham Harbor.
You can thank me later by naming your first born child after me. ;)

I will never attend a concert at this venue again. Despite the stellar location in Museum Campus, this venue comes up short in every aspect. Nasty bathrooms that are basically glorified porta-​potties, make-​shift seating, bad acoustics, video screens kept going in and out of service for the duration of the show. Also, there is an apparent hard stop of 11 p.m. and the concert I went to was cut short without any notice to fans. Terrible on every level — do not waste your money to attend a show at this venue.

A waste of space. When I visit this ground I see a field of lies and broken promises from former Mayor Richard M. Daley. This place is so sad it really needs a monument and reflecting pool.
When you visit Northerly Island you will realize that it would make a great airport for downtown Chicago. It once was. Ten years ago, under the guise of defending the homeland, Daley Bulldozed what was once a mecca for aviation enthusiasts. To make matters worse, the Governor just signed a law authorizing the construction of another airport to serve Chicago.
Northerly island today? Not much to look at.

This place is awful.
First the location itself is in the middle of nowhere. It takes roughly 20−30mn to walk to the venue and there are ZERO taxi’s waiting for you after the show. Second the venue is basically on the lake so be prepared for awful weather. Rain, snow and wind will play a major part of your life if you see a show here. Third, the layout of the venue is just awful. There is no reason to have the «field/​lawn» seats available. There is NO WAY you can see the stage past the seats. Bathrooms are non-​exsistant, cell service is non-​existant and beer is roughly $ 11 – 15. (not to mention an 11: pm curfew)
SKIP

Overpriced seats, food, drinks. Even worse — they allow smoking everywhere. A blight to the shoreline. I will not go back, even if I had free tickets for a great performer.

Not a bad place :)
Their location is placed right by the beach/​lake. There is enough breeze to keep you cool during a hot summer day.

The island is fairly barren unless there’s some event, but if you go to the north tip just passed the Planetarium, you can sit in solitude and look out over the vast water for miles and see nothing. It reminds a bit of Bellevue Beach in Klambenborg, Denmark though there you look over the sea and find Sweden on the other side.

FANTASTIC venue, but my advice is to drive an and park there! I was at a concert over the weekend and we stayed downtown at a hotel and thought it would be easiest to take a cab both ways — big mistake! The cabbie on the way to the concert, dropped us off at the wrong place and we had to walk about a mile and a half. At that point, we flagged down our second cab and he said he wouldn’t take us there and squealed off. We did find another (third) cab to get us but he told us that the reason we were probably dropped off at the wrong place and turned down by the second cab was because the traffic is so bad going in there that they lose money on those trips. That makes sense. Well, the walk that we had to do going there wasn’t really a big deal because it was beautiful weather. Coming out was a different story. There was no cabs to be had and we had to walk and walk and walk. We walked LITERALLY about 5 or 6 miles before we were able to get a cab. Now, at this point, it was after midnight and two women walking alone from the lakefront is never a good idea. Thankfully, we were fine but if I had bothered to ask around or research it, I would have known to just drive there and park. I’m not sure how much parking costs there but I don’t drink beer to begin with but for those who do drink beer, it was $ 14 a beer. Do THAT math! I’m not cheap but seriously, for the cost of 3 or 4 beers, I could get a new pair of shoes… I’d opt for the shoes!
On another note, it was very clean, the staff was very friendly and instead of those horrible porta-​potty things, they have trailers with bathrooms in them. They are air conditioned, running water and very clean. There was an attendant inside each trailer that I went into, constantly wiping down the sinks, filling toilet paper, etc. Very impressive!
I hope this someone out in the future!

Since my last review was deleted by Unilocal (after having been apparently perfectly acceptable for ~6 years?) because «Woodrow» said it «lacked firsthand experience,» I will re-​review.
Northerly Island is a complete waste of space. It could be so much more. The concert venues is poorly planned and nothing has been done to improve it in 7 years. It’s still basically a temporary structure.
The bike path? Going around in a circle a midst «prairie grass» is about as boring as can be, and you have to fight through the traffic and hoards of people to even get there.
Perhaps the only good thing is the beach, but that’s only because most people don’t know there is a beach there, so it gets less traffic.
Northerly Island is and always be Meigs to me and to millions of Chicagoans. All that has changed is now Big Corporations get to fleece the public for expensive concert tickets. Good job Chicago!
Previously Removed Content:
I have to counter some of the opinions expressed here.
While an outdoor venue may be nice for 4 months of the year, it is no excuse for what Mayor Daley did to citizens of the city when he tore up the runway at Meigs field. There were many private pilots that had their planes stored at Meigs. How would you feel if the place that you were paying to park your car was suddenly destroyed on purpose by the Mayor and you were unable to drive your car? It was an extremely inappropriate way to handle a non-​existent security threat. It alienated a small group of influential people and was generally a bad move. Shame on your Mr. Daley!
V C.: How many accidents were there at Meigs? Do you know? From a search of public accident databases, I can find only 3, and none were caused by proximity to downtown, nor did they affect anything other than the plane itself. This is an abominable example of a mayor impulsively usurping Federal authority in the name of homeland security and was totally unacceptable. This only served to hurt law-​abiding Americans with a need and desire to fly. Plus the underhanded method in which the mayor went about destroying the runway, overnight without any public discussion, is tyranny.

We took our bikes on a long ride along the lake and headed past the planetarium to see what was up with Northerly Island. Well the concert venue looks ridiculously small and the garbage smells horrific in the heat. However, once you get past the «lego like» concert area, the park is a bird and butterfly sanctuary with a long paved path that loops all the way to the southern most tip of the island right across from McCormick Place East. It’s a nice walk, jog or ride until you have to head back towards the «backdoor» of the old Meigs Fields buildings where it seems the city stores a lot of unused equipment, cars etc. Really an ugly site and not very becoming for a city that is supposed to be «world class!»

Northerly Island is one of the hidden gems of Chicago. Whatever one may think about the long-​past closing of Meigs Airfield, that’s already happened and we now have an extended park on the lake. It has a beach on its northeast side. It has a music venue on its northwest side. It has long paths on which to walk, bike or rollerblade.
If you drive there is parking at a Pay to Park lot about half way down the island. From Solidarity Drive on the Museum Campus, drive south on Linn White Drive. Eventually on the left you’ll see the parking lot. Once there (and having paid), walk to the building at the south end of the lot, where at the moment you’ll find a covered walkway to the park path.
For me «The Three Daphnes,» Dessa Kirk’s wonderfully whimsical and graceful metal sculptures about midway down the path, are a focal point and feature of the park. View them from up close, but walk away from them to the west on the grass and view all three of them from a distance. These three pieces are companions to the equally graceful «Magdalene,» which stands on the divider on the Congress Parkway on the east side of Michigan Avenue, between Mestrovic’s «The Bowman» and «The Spearman.»
The Meigs Terminal Building remains on the island. It is a1961 three-​story glass, steel and masonry building, now a Chicago Park District field house. It was designed by Chicago architects Consoer & Morgan and completed in 1961.
You can easily go from very busy areas to very peaceful spaces on this island while enjoying wildflower plantings in the summer. It’s is a fine birding area (yes, there are more birds than the red-​winged blackbirds in the grasses).

I love Northerly Island, even though I found it nutso + uncool for our beloved and hilarious mayor to tear it up in the middle of the night, not to mention insane for the reasons Matthew mentions. I have to agree with several here about the absurdity of da mayor’s safety excuse when nothing’s happened, ever. Every building in town –could– fall down, too, injuring thousands. Could happen… using the same logic, let’s tear them all down. I used to love the fact that it was there.
However… while I’ve not yet been here for a concert, I’ve been there in the daytime to enjoy the naturally planted species + animals state it’s been delightfully converted (restored?) to. Visit in the summer, and you’ll see a gazillion animals, butterflies EVERYwhere (it’s incredible!), and it’s just generally wonderful.
I have to give the mayor kudos about –how– it’s been converted, though I did love it as an airport, too.

Frankly, I don’t care about the politics. That’s neither here, nor there for the rating of this establishment.
I love this place, especially when opening acts come on as the sun goes down and the headliner comes on at night. I’ve seen 311 here twice and loved both shows. It’s just so open and nice, but unfortunately I’ve heard that they have a problem getting other acts here. Well you did a good job for 311. I’ll visit again if they come around.