MUSIC • FOOD • FIREWORKS • 4pm on July 4! FREE CONCERT & FREE PARKING!

Come for the music, enjoy Louie B. Fresh Mobile Kitchen & Catering & Frost Gelato, and stay for the fireworks!

Celebrating its 12th year, the Bitter Jester Music Festival hits its 2017 summer stride with the annual Grand Finale Concert. Ten incredible bands will be featured with eight of them in competition. This concert is a showcase of some of the BEST up-and-coming musical talent from across Northern Illinois and Wisconsin! 

Preliminary concerts took place the first four Fridays of June at Port Clinton Square in beautiful Downtown Highland Park. Professional judges selected one winning band each Friday and the Bitter Jester Foundation for the Arts selected four additional Wild Card Bands to advance to the Semi-Finals on the July 4. Nearly $32,000 in combined cash and prizes will be given away to musicians and lucky audience members! Awesome raffle prizes will be given away too, with proceeds benefiting the Bitter Jester Foundation, a not-for-profit charity.

The Winning Bands have been:

NIGHT ONE: We Are Livewire ("LiveWire") from St. Charles, IL
NIGHT TWO: Audiophilia from Williams Bay, Eau Claire, Waterford, Elkhorn, and Lake Geneva, WI
NIGHT THREE: The Child of Eve from North Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, South Elgin, and St. Charles, IL
NIGHT FOUR: Surround Sound 
WILD CARD BANDS: The Magnifiers, Elise and the Police, Eminence, Stellar West

SHOWCASE BANDS: Skydeck and The Browns

Select top bands will play a "Best Of" concert at the Miller Lite Beer Garden at Navy Pier / Navy Pier on 09/03/17.