It’s Friday, so I am linking up with Courtney at Eat, Pray, Run DC, Cynthia at You Signed Up for What and Mar at Mar on the Run for their weekly linkup. Each week they pick a theme and bloggers join in and link up. This year instead of specific themes, they are letting us be creative with broad themes for each week of the month. This is the fourth Friday of the month so it’s a “Free” week. I am going to share 5 Reasons to Check Out Taste of Chicago and then tell you how you can win 36 tickets to get your taste on from Humana!
Taste of Chicago is a huge food festival that takes place in July each year. This is the 37th year and the Taste will be held from July 6 – 10th in Grant Park. Get the full 411 HERE.
5 Reasons to Check Out Taste of Chicago
1. It’s a tradition. This is the 37th year and one of the biggest events in Chicago in the summer. I have only been once, but The Husband and I are going to go this year. Maybe it will become a tradition for us, too!
2. It’s free! You have to pay for your food, of course. But there is a lot more to check out at no cost including chef’s demos, live podcasts, samples, music (see #4) and more.
3. To try #allthefoods. The Taste offers a chance to try foods from Chicago’s favorite restaurants – old and new! There are 34 restaurants that will be there all 5 days, 17 pop-ups that will be there for a day or two and 18 food trucks! They also have 5 local celebrity chef’s dinners with a three course meal for $45. Food and beverage tickets are sold in strips of 12 tickets for $8.50. “Taste Of” portions are priced at $2.50 or less.
4. There is great music for free (and at reasonable prices) and other fun stuff to check out. There are free concerts all day every day at The Bud Lite Stage with a different theme each day. There is also a concert each night including The Roots, The Kongos, The Decemberists, Billy Idol and the Isley Brothers. Learn more and get tickets HERE. General admission tickets are only $23! That’s pretty good – no? The Husband and I are going to see The Decemberists on Friday night if anyone would like to join us!
5. Humana’s Healthier Choices enable you to check out the Taste without breaking your calorie bank! This year’s program features 68 healthy food options from 28 Chicago restaurants. Look for the new logo (the H with an arrow around it – above) on menu boards. A full list of Humana Healthier Choices will be available at the Humana tent and can be found here (or on the new Taste of Chicago app). The Healthier Choices were reviewed by a panel of physicians to ensure they met nutritional requirements for calories, sodium, saturated fat and more.
Stop at the Humana Tent (on Columbus Drive between Jackson Blvd and the Buckingham Fountain) to get a list of Healthier Choices, enjoy some shade, get health tips, exercise to win prizes and more. You can also get a Humana Healthier Choices Tag. Collect six stamps on your tag by sampling Humana Healthier Choices food items or participating in healthy activities at the Humana tent. Once you get six stamps, drop your badge back at the Humana tent to be entered into random prize drawings donated by the Taste of Chicago restaurants. Prize winners will be announced on the evening of July 10.
Humana has offered me AND one lucky reader some tickets to check out Healthier Choices. They are giving us each 36 tickets ($25.50 value)! Want to win? Check out the list of Healthier Choices here and leave a comment to let me know which one you would try first. Bonus entry: share this post via social media and leave a separate comment with the link. A winner will be selected with Random.org in order of comment on this post on Sunday, July 3rd. A winner will be notified by email on July 4th. Winner must be able to pick up his/her tickets from the Humana tent in person by Saturday, July 9.
Have you ever been to Taste of Chicago? Do you have any favorites?
Please note: The information on Humana Healthier Choices and Taste tickets have been provided by Humana so that I can try some of the Humana Healthier Choices and share my thoughts and information about these items. All opinions are my own.