RAVINIA FESTIVAL supports the bitter jester music festival

Check out what Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois, has to say about the Bitter Jester Music Fest!

Dear Nic and the Bitter Jester Music Festival Team,

Ravinia is North America's oldest music festival. Today we also stand as its most musically diverse festival, presenting a large variety of different events each summer. We pride ourselves on presenting the world’s finest artists, especially the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Last summer we added to our diversity of offerings by partnering with you and The Bitter Jester Foundation. Moreover, it brought great joy to present Summer Drive, the 2021 (and 2022!) Bitter Jester Grand Champions at our park in June, opening for the three-time multiplatinum winning Steve Miller Band on Ravinia’s beautiful Carousel Stage.

Heads were turned. People stopped in their tracks. We even sold 50+ Summer Drive T-shirts through our merchandise stand. With 8,000 people in attendance at our park that evening, we know Summer Drive made more than a few diehard fans. Furthermore, they represented your organization - and Ravinia - very well.

The musicality exhibited by the high caliber musicians under the care of the Bitter Jester music program is undeniable. Performers who earn spots in your festival clearly have inherent skill and ability. But we have seen firsthand how your dedicated team nurtures those talents, providing professional marketing materials and absolutely incredible feedback that proves instrumental to their growth and better understanding of themselves as artists. That educational impact helps take bands like Summer Drive to the next level. It’s part of the reason they landed on our stage. It’s also something we deeply respect and admire.

Because of this, top performers coming out of the Bitter Jester Music Festival will have a home at Ravinia, enjoying an annual Carousel Stage opening spot for some of the nation’s biggest acts. We look forward to working with you again this summer and in the future (and I can’t wait to hear this year’s band perform on the Carousel Stage!).

It is important that Ravinia form quality partnerships, especially with local organizations. We also enjoy hosting new bands and solo musicians that may, someday, become well-known national acts performing on our main stage. The Bitter Jester Music Festival is among those organizations at the top of our list: a pipeline for high-quality talent and a festival truly focused on nurturing tomorrow’s rock stars.

Signed: Erik Soderstrom, Senior Artistic Producer