Arts & Entertainment
Chosen Few Picnic and Festival Celebrates 35 Years in Jackson Park
This weekend house music lovers will dance, shake and bounce to celebrate 35 years of the Chosen Few Picnic and Festival in Jackson Park, where the event first started back in 1990.
Grammy-nominated producer Terry Hunter joined the Chosen Few DJs in 2006, which he recalls as an amazing time.
“Chosen Few had this big hype,” said Hunter, describing it as a collection of DJs started by Wayne Williams back in the ‘70s.
The picnic came after the collective’s formation, starting out as just a few families enjoying music behind the Museum of Science and Industry and eventually growing to the phenomenon that it is now.
About 40,000 fans are expected to be at this weekend’s event.
“House music is a feeling,” Hunter said. “You can tell how a DJ feels by the record that he or she plays. It’s definitely a four-four, uptempo beat. It’s dance music, you know?”
Lora Branch is a pioneer of the genre in her own right as one of the first women DJs of house music, a historically male-dominated space.
“I didn’t know that I was the first of anything — I just wanted to play,” Branch said. “It’s very humbling and I get to help bring up other women.”
Branch, Hunter and the rest of the Chosen Few DJs will be at Jackson Park on Saturday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
