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Chicago’s newest lakefront addition, Millennium Park, has a variety of attractions to enhance visitors’ lakefront experience. The 24.5-acre park is located at the northwest corner of Grant Park and provides an impressive park setting where visitors can admire gardens, watch a performing arts presentation or listen to a concert performance. Millennium Park’s design includes an outdoor performing arts pavilion; an indoor year-round theatre; a restaurant; an ice skating rink; a contemporary garden; public art; fountains; landscaped walkways and green spaces.

From November to February, visitors to Millennium Park can enjoy the ice rink at the McCormick Tribune Plaza. This free ice rink, located on Michigan Avenue between Washington and Madison streets, is open seven days a week during winter months and skate hire is available. During the summer months, the rink will feature outdoor dining, exhibits and events. The Park Grill, a year round, 300-seat restaurant, can be found adjacent to the ice rink.

Also adjacent to and above the ice rink at McCormick Tribune Plaza is the SBC Plaza, with Cloud Gate, a sculpture by internationally renowned British artist Anish Kapoor. This 110-ton elliptical sculpture measures 66-feet long by 33-feet high and has a stainless steel surface that reflects the activity and lights of the park and the surrounding city skyline.

The Millennium Park Monument in Wrigley Square, located at the corner of Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue, provides park-goers with a picturesque area to relax and enjoy the view of Chicago’s famed skyline. The monument, which acknowledges all of the Founders of Millennium Park, is set in a common area of lawn lined with trees and is a nearly full sized replica of the original peristyle built in the same location in 1917.

In addition, The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance provides a state-of-the-art, indoor facility for 12 organisations of Chicago’s performing arts community. The round theatre features a 1,500-seat venue for visitors to enjoy performances including opera, choral, folk and symphonic music, and traditional, ethnic and contemporary dance. Located at Randolph Street and Columbus Drive, the theatre is predominately underground and features an above ground terrace, located above the auditorium, offering guests seasonal outdoor dining and exhibitions.

Concert-goers can enjoy the sights and sounds of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion and Great Lawn with its 4,000 fixed, stadium-style seats, plus lawn seating for approximately 7,000. The Jay Pritzker Pavilion is also home to the Grant Park Music Festival, which will celebrate its 71th season in 2005 as the only remaining free, municipally funded, outdoor classical music series in the USA.

The Pavilion’s performance shell, designed by famed architect Frank Gehry, can accommodate a full sized symphony orchestra and a 150-member choral group on an elevated terrace. A state-of-the-art sound system and decorative lighting system further serves to enhance the experience of visitors. Located along Columbus Drive, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion and Great Lawn can be easily accessed from Grant Park to the east via the BP Pedestrian Bridge, also designed by Frank Gehry.

The Bank One Promenade, located in the centre of the park, provides a unique setting for guests to enjoy a range of events. The promenade provides ample area for visitors to enjoy festivals, exhibitions and family activities.

The Lurie Garden and the Crown Fountain flank the south end of Millennium Park and is framed with tall hedgerows enclosing areas of magnificent seasonal plants illuminated by accent lighting that will stimulate the senses of park-goers.

At the Crown Fountain, located at Monroe Street and Michigan Avenue, spectators are captivated by two extraordinary 50-foot high glass fountain towers that sit in a reflecting pool and provide an exhibition of water, light and electronic images.

For more information or to obtain a brochure, call the Chicago & Illinois Tourist Office’s Freephone Brochure Line on 08700 503410or visit online www.gochicago.com

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