BY TER STAFF

Live music has returned to the Second City, as Chicago’s premiere country music festival, the Windy City Smokeout, kicked off on Thursday night with Illinois’ own, Brett Eldredge.

Celebrating the festival’s 9th year and 2nd year taking place at the lots of the United Center, the same site that hosted mass vaccination clinics throughout the spring is now host to Chicago’s first music festival of 2021. Needless to say, fans couldn’t be more excited.

The Windy City Smokeout is expected to host more than 15,000 fans throughout the extended weekend, with headlining performances from A-list country stars like Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley and Jon Pardi, as well as big performances from Morgan Evans, Ryan Hurd, the Randy Rogers Band and many more. If the music alone wasn’t enough for you, the festival will also feature some of the best BBQ from the local and national pitmasters.

The moment that fans had been waiting for, for over a year, night 1 of the festival was a can’t miss evening as Brett Eldredge blessed Chicago with it’s biggest performance since March of 2020, also marking our return to live music coverage since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Check out our favorite photos from the “Don’t Ya” singers memorable performance:

Photos by Dan Garcia