Do Division Street Fest

Crowded but lots of fun

This was my first time at Do Division and it was pretty much what I expected. A million people crammed like sardines. Nonetheless, it was a good time. My dog was a hit. I know. I was THAT person who brought their dog. Sorry.

I go to this one because it’s relatively close to where I live. They seem to have good bands, but this year it seemed smaller, and I’m not sure why. There were lots of good variety of shops, but not a ton of restaurants. It was a good mix of people and draws in a nice crowd.

It was a great weekend festival. A lot of people were out, the weather was great!
Great music and food is all I can ask for.
Is definitely a must go for next summer!

Do Division seemed to be very cool and I showed up at the end of the party on Saturday night. I’ve now missed it two years running and need to make it a point to come next year. For the few minutes I was here on Saturday night it was poppin. The party on the street and slowly moved to the bars but was still trickling out onto the streets. Most Chicago festivals can be a good time with local food and live music but there was something different about Do Division. When we were trying to get into a bar right off of Division it was impossible.
There were crowds of people everywhere and I wouldn’t go as far as to say it was as busy as the Taste but it now makes sense why Chicago has turned its focus away from the July 4^th time and onto local festivals. They are much easier to manage and give you something to do nearly every weekend in the summer. Summertime in Chicago is literally the best.

It was super packed and lines for the drink tents were loooong. Otherwise, do-​division has a lot to offer. There’s plenty to browse with local vendors occupying a couple blocks, from Leavitt to Damen-​ish.

Do Division is not Renegade, so don’t get the two confused but DD did and has had a few vendors selling crafts, jewelry, belts, hats, plants and t-​shirts, some of which was made by hand by the artist selling on hand. Do Division is a smaller festival and again this year, it was a short three and a half blocks. As others have said in other reviews, it’s small, it’s got a decent lineup of music, better food than most of the «common» festivals and who doesn’t love the ability to stand in the street with other lovely Chicagoans, drink and socialize. That’s one thing they offered that not a lot of other festivals do; offering socialization spaces. For example by the stages and off the intersections were areas that were large in space where people could rock out, or just convene & hang out. So bring your kids if you like (during the day only please) and your dogs.
I guess it’s also a great way to get to know the area. When I’m at Renegade I’m looking for new shizz for my home, gifts, etc. At Do Division, you can get through the stands pretty quickly which leaves time to check out the local stores and restaurants. In the end it was so hot & swelter-​y this year, we camped out at Fame. Their Moscow mule’s kept us comfortable and buzzed. Kudos to fest management for getting Coors sponsoring for the 2014 event. Two beers I can’t stand are Budweiser and PBR, I can’t tell you how many Chicago festivals I’ve been to with piss & diarrhea water. Guys you can still claim to live in the city without drinking PBR.

Great festival in a nice part of town. There is a considerable amount of food selections from Smoke Daddy Ribs, burgers, kabobs to fried snickers. You can also have some Coors Light, Leinenkugels beer which is not too pricey. There were some good selections from vendors selling jewelry, paintings, sketches, dog clothing and some nice summer wardrobe selections.
My favorite are the bands and djs. They always know how to entertain a good crowd. This year they held a fashion show from Mad Style, Maash, Takataka Hills, Prin, Psychobaby, M. Go, Sin Charity and The Pattern Maker to entertain the gals with host NBC 5 Reporter Natalie Martinez. I will be back for more next year.

All Festivals are pretty much the same too me. I just like to be able to go outside and enjoy the weather and maybe once in a while they’ll be a few interesting vendors. That goes for DO Division as well. I like that there are many restaurants with outdoor seating to frequent while at the fest. I got a really good deal on a ring (paid $ 5) that I love. Other than that same old same old… running into friends, eating, drinking, etcc…
Nice thing about this festival is they ask for a $ 5.00 donation (pretty cheap), but they don’t try to force you to pay the donation like other festivals do…(ahem…Randolph Street Fest). It’s a good time with friends and family out on the streets of Division.

For my 1^st Chicago festival of the year, Do Division Street fest was a little underwhelming. It didn’t disappoint as far as having something fun to do on a Saturday. But in comparison to other festivals I’ve been to in the past, there weren’t a lot of food and drink options.
The fest really only has 2 drink tents that features the same beers, cider and Sangria. You’d like to see more than 6 options. And it didn’t help that both tents were on complete opposite sides of the festival. Food options were a little better. They had a huge food tent with wing buckets, cheese fries buckets, italian beef and a bunch of other things you would find in a sandwich shop. And they also had an orange chicken stand that was packed with people.
The saving grace was the local establishments. So if you didn’t want the food or drinks at the festival, almost every establishment was jam packed with people eating and sitting on their patios. We stopped at FAME and had a great time there with their $ 5 dollar burgers and pints special.
For $ 5, its worth it if you are out with friends. Just wish there were more options food and drinkwise.

2 huge stages! Nice set up with the booths in the middle! Plenty of stuff for kids! Freakin! hot day! The beer was flowing nicely. The Wurst Haus Hot Knockwurst was hot! Real Hot! This was my fiorst of many summer fstivsals in Chicago.

3 ½ stars. We do this fest as a family so the best time to go is early, when it opens. We actually try to get there prior to the start as many vendors are open prior to noon, as are all of the stores and restaurants. Many of the stores in this stretch have changed face since our first visit a few years ago, and all for the better. Several pubs and restaurants to pick from and some nice outdoor seating.
As for the festival itself, we like it for the vendors and kids activities. The vendor area seemed quite a bit smaller this year but I was happy to find Peoples Garment Co there. They peddle mostly t-​shirts featuring defunct Chicago sports teams. Scored a cool Chicago Whales 1914 Federal League Baseball shirt from them today. Most of the vendors are clothing and crafts dealers but there’s also a food deal of companies offering freebies. Check out the Illinois Lottery booth, sign up and get a free ticket. Not bad.
This children’s area of the festival is the majority of it, which spans two streets. My son enjoyed the bouncing tent, miniature golf, virtual running game, climbing wall and horse ride on the events street. On the other street he got a bunch of tattoo’s, sunglasses, frisbee’s, flashlights, colored pictures, balloons, etc.
There’s a good deal of live entertainment at the festival which I’d like to see, but it doesn’t really start until late afternoon when we’ve already spent 4 – 5 hours in the sun.
Anyways, this is a nice festival for families, but it really caters to just about everyone.
Cheers.

We went on a Saturday when the Hawks were playing and won and the nice rainy weather we had on and off. Yet people were still hangout out. I was told that this was a 3 days event.
We were here because my brother lives off this street. There was a $ 5 donation at the entrance which was ok. They had two live band stages on both ends of the street. I wished one of them had different DJs playing instead. They had plenty of port a potties and some picnic tables for folks to sit down and eat.
The food venues that were set up in the middle of the streets were ok. You can also eat in the actual restaurants off the street as well. I wish the restaurants themselves would have at least set up a section and sell their most popular dishes as appetizer size for us to purchase, like Taste of Chicago.
I have to say that they did keep the streets clean from garbage and flooding water when it rained.
There was a pretty good crowd and a lot of them dog owners. The crowd itself was mostly folks around their 20’s-30’s and a few with their kids. This would be a great Fest to meet local people if you live around the area.
Overall, it was a nice experience as this was our first time attending these types of Fest in Chicago.

I thought Do-​Division was okay. I was only there Friday night, the one band I saw was good the other was awful. The food was a little scarce but they did have deep fried snickers, which I haven’t had in two years! Good for people watching, but it was a little too hipster for me.
I think the problem with going to a lot of these summer fests, you see the same booths year after year selling what I believe is the same stuff.
It was a fun time, but wouldn’t go out of my way next year to go to this fest.

Do Division or Do Di, as Nick M. calls it (haha, he said «Doody») is still a solid beginning to the great Chicago tradition of community street festivals. Didja get that? Community street festivals. Pitch in the $ 5, it won’t kill you!
Especially since Do Division is now being booked by Empty Bottle Presents, which landed great bands like Life and Times, Ariel Pink, Jeff the Brotherhood. Do Division also has a stage devoted to mostly electronic music. Food options here are a little lacking. I always love seeing the Cevapcici booth, and Mana Food Bar has some good eats, but they need more food here!
Beer and drink options are alright. And there are now two sidestreets almost completely devoted to kids and families. Go to Do Division, and get your summer started right!

Anther benefit of living on Division. For a $ 5 donation my little family had a good day. The bands sounded good. The food tasted great. And most important the drinks were flowing (just kiddin, but for real).
Venders were good. Lots of cute things to look at. People were pretty dressed up, much more than I had expected. But there is no such thing as looking too nice though right?
My only real complaint was not even really about the festival itself, more about the people not being very considerate of people with strollers. It was very difficult to navigate on the side walks or in the street outside of the designated family area because people would just stop right in front of you mid walk and expect you to go around them, and look at you weird like stopping right in the middle of the road is a normal behavior. Whatever not a big deal.
The kids things do require tickets for most of the activities. But there were plenty of other things for free for kids as well. Punk rock hair styles, picture painting, snack making, and a little play area for toddlers all free. Face painting was pretty cheap. Def a good time. For a $ 5 donation def worth it to go and check it out. So my first do-​Division is done.

For a $ 5 Suggested Donation you too can walk up and down Division, imbibe on overpriced beer, snack or dine on food from one of the food booths, purchase jewelry/​clothing/​dog snacks/​etc from one of the many vendors and listen to one of the many bands on their line-​up.
I didn’t really stop to check all the food booths because the only food I had my eye one was Cevapcicci – my favorite fest food – and they did not disappoint. I did like that there was a lot of seating (picnic) tables available. Don’t be shy, just ask if there’s room and set yourself down.
The children’s area was really nice but I didn’t expect that every activity required tickets ($) even after paying the $ 5 donation at the gate. There was pony rides, face painting, a scavenger hunt and other mini carnival games. Thank you to the ladies at Psychobaby though for doing up the bub’s hair Sid Vicious style with blue highlights (no ticket required!)
The walking area is wide although can get crowded in some areas (like near the carnival food booths). Lots of strollers so watch the back of your feet. Dog friendly.
I wasn’t really wowed by the Fest, but did get introduced to some great businesses that I will for sure frequent in the future.

Oh buggers, another $ 5 donation, for what exactly… this one is very tiny — I’ld give it a three if it were just bigger with more to see. Do Division is like entering a hip club where everyone looks tan, workout, maybe do laundry. Summer hasn’t even officially started, how did that happen?! Most ladies are all dolled up wearing cute summer dresses walking around on 6″ wedges. Myself, totally under dressed with my t-​shirt + jeans and dr. scholl’s walking shoes. Gosh, I feel so out of place…
Division has lots of sidewalk seating eateries, so there’s plenty of people watching (keyword– just watching) during this festival. It’s like a fashion show of the public. Music is good also not distortingly loud.
Noteworthy crowd: Mostly mid 20/​early 30 somethings, yuppies, families with giant baby strollers and dogs.

This festival is getting better every year. Now that local music clubs like Sub T and the Bottle are doing the booking the festival is getting great headliners on both stages. They had a slew of excellent Indie rock bands (let’s not get into brass tacks here) and delivered all day. I saw a few of the bands at the booking venues before the fest so was not here for the big day (Saturday), but rather came on Sunday.
I am not a very cool guy. In fact, I am pretty lame most of the time, but what I love about this festival (as someone who lives a half mile away) is that I saw so many people I knew, and also ran into servers, and bartenders from local establishments that I knew as well. It was nice to chat with so many neighbors and friends and this made the festival feel like it hadn’t gotten too big for its britches like the crazy fests that run along Milwaukee Avenue.
I try to avoid buying beer from the beer tents, but like to get my beers at the cafes and other bars on the street. There are rules about no bottles or cans on the street, so I was served in a plastic cup at a few places and this was allowed (I have no idea if this is «approved») so security did not force me to get rid of my drinks. I saw them enforcing the no cans or bottles rule earlier in the day, but by the time the last acts went on at 8 and 830 they were not doing so. People had backpacks full of beer and were drinking it and passing around ¹⁄₅ bottles of rum. Despite this drinking — everyone was friendly and respectful. Only one guy from Saint Louis was having a hard time standing — and his hosts got him out of there! Thanks hosts!
Overall a great fest with great music and for a $ 5 or $ 1 donation or free for you Art School Confidential types, it really is a neighborhood party rather than a drunk fest for boozers from other hoods. This said, my friend said that Saturday there were a lot of high-​fiven bros and Trixies and they were here in full force, but hey, you can buy a $ 500K condo around here so the bros and painted toe Trixies are gonna come — build it and they will come. But hey, who is complaining about girls in 6 inch wedges and hot pants? Not this reporter!
I think that Kids are going to have fun before 5. After 5 I would find something else for the kiddies to do.

Somehow the math doesn’t add up right.
So you’ve got this street fest in a great neighborhood (well, there is some bar fail in the area, I admit) with good bands (especially big with the kids in said neighborhood), a friendly atmosphere (Marty Lennartz from WXRT just being another person in the crowd instead of on stage like usual) and potentially great food vendors (Mana Food Bar, anyone) and yet the whole thing adds up to an average experience.
Yeah, maybe it doesn’t make any sense because I forgot to «do division.»
There is some variable that I’m missing that the whole fest is divided by. I would have to say that the «x» for this festival stands for «x“ecution (this review is about math, not spelling, darn it). The problem with Do Division was that it was too compact. There were enough booths inside for four blocks all compressed into two. Sunday wasn’t horrible for space, though still a bit messy, but I could only imagine how crowded it was on Saturday.
The sound was also terrible at the main stage unless you were close. It wasn’t hard to get close on Sunday (the only way to meet Marty Lennartz) but even about two storefronts away from the stage, we could hear nothing but bass.
There definitely needed to be more variety as well. The vendors were sadly predictable. Is there really any need for two sunglass tents? There were some new faces (and the spray pancakes were incredible) but I feel like it’s possible I’ll be seeing those at every fest to follow.
So with the exception of the vegetarian food choices and the beer sheep (some ingenious locals dropping beer from the sky out of their apartment in a sheep shaped bucket for cheaper than the $ 4 PBRs at the beer tent) there was sadly no x factor to multiply Do Division by to separate it from any other festival.