Market · Chicago metro · within 25 miles
The Chicago market books about 1,727 shows a year across 1,022 venues, with 955 already on the calendar. Rock leads the tagged shows at 27%, ahead of Jazz / Blues at 16%. Saturdays are the busiest night and Mondays the quietest, and Friday and Saturday together carry 47% of the year. September is the peak month. SPACE is the most-booked venue, with 124 shows on record. The market covers Chicago and 103 nearby cities within 25 miles, including Wheaton, Evanston and Arlington Heights.
Refreshed September 29, 2026 · from Cultivate's live dataset
The venues
Ranked by shows on record. Genre focus comes from what each venue has actually booked.
The shape of the market
What else competes for the night
Fairs, festivals, sports and civic events pull the same crowd. Cultivate weighs each one by expected draw and scores every night in Chicago from 0 to 100 before you commit a date.
2 dates on the calendar · very large draw
2 dates on the calendar · very large draw
2 dates on the calendar · very large draw
1 date on the calendar · very large draw
1 date on the calendar · very large draw
1 date on the calendar · very large draw
1 date on the calendar · very large draw
1 date on the calendar · very large draw
Breaking on Shazam
Shazam charts Chicago on its own: the songs people heard and wanted to know, this week. Cultivate reads that chart every day beside the venues in Chicago that could book the acts behind it, with the acts already on our record marked and their shows here counted.
Questions
Cultivate tracks 1,022 venues that book live music within 25 miles of Chicago, Illinois, from bar stages to arenas, with about 1,727 shows in the last twelve months and 955 upcoming.
Saturday. In 2026, 572 shows fall on a Saturday, against 107 on a Monday, the quietest night. Friday and Saturday together account for 47% of the year's shows.
Rock leads with 27% of the shows that carry a genre, followed by Jazz / Blues at 16%. Genre comes from what venues actually book, not from how they describe themselves.
SPACE in Evanston, with 124 shows on record and 39 upcoming. Booking contacts and exact capacities for every venue are available in the Cultivate console.
This is a sample of the Chicago data
The console has every venue, every act, the booking contacts, the Competition Grid and the Tour Planner, for Chicago and every other market in the country.