For a single weekend each year, the Northalsted/Lakeview neighborhood in Chicago shuts down for Market Days — a nearly nonstop street festival filled with food, drinks, dancing, drag, and gays. A lot of them.
The signature queer celebration took place this past weekend from August 10 to 11 — in case you’ve been living under a rock and/or have a healthy relationship with social media.
Don’t let its website’s chaste description or all-star lineup of performers like Billy Porter, Dragonette, and Big Freedia fool you.
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Market Days is not your mom’s farmer’s market meetup. (Sorry, plant gays!)
It’s one of the LGBTQ+ community’s most rowdy, raunchy, and uninhibited party weekends of the year, and we’ve got the Gay Twitter™️ receipts to prove it.
So, what is the deal with Market Days?
The Midwest festival kicked off in 1982 and attracts over 300,000 attendees yearly.
While a free event, a $20 suggested donation benefits performers, festival workers, and local LGBTQ+ charities and non-profits like the Chicago Pride Crosswalks.
And OK, while the gays tend to go off, most of the lasciviousness is reserved for after-hours parties at the city’s trademark gay clubs and bars.
Furthermore, Market Days tends to attract some big-name queer celebs and allies.
This year’s social-media sightings included Jonathan Bennett, Drag Race‘s Denali, and… Kamala Harris?!
Understandably, after 48 hours straight of partying (and less than two months’ distance from the summer’s craziest Pride festivities), the tone on Gay Twitter™️ had shifted to “tired.”
Nevertheless, Chicago won’t be sleeping for long!
As one user pointed out, the city will host this year’s Democratic National Convention, kicking off next Monday, August 19.
And if it’s anything like the 2024 Republican National Convention — a.k.a “Grindr’s Super Bowl” — the gays are going to want to be rested up!
Check out more hilarious tweets from Market Days below.
SoloMcDaniel
I like how Queerty makes several references to being up for days and not getting any sleep and then they show the corner of Halsted and Cornelia. Everyone knows if you’re hanging out in front of Hydrate during Market Days, you’re tweaked.
Thad
I was at Market Days for my 4th year. Love it. Traffic stopped at Halsted & Cornelia and my friend Frank said, “I don’t believe I’ve ever been surrounded by so much beef in my life.”