Looptopia

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-down04.html News Loop plans to stay up all night at special party February 4, 2006 BY SANDRA GUY Business Reporter Chicago's Loop will be transformed into an all-night party, with parades, fireworks and live performances in what boosters are billing as a multimillion-dollar extravaganza similar to Paris' White Nights Festival. The 12-hour event, called Looptopia, is slated for May 11, 2007, during Mother's Day weekend, said Ty Tabing, executive director of the Chicago Loop Alliance, in a speech to the alliance's first membership meeting and luncheon Friday at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. The event will be held from Wacker Drive to Congress Parkway and from Dearborn to Lake Michigan. Marshall Field's to stay open Looptopia planners envision an evening filled with shopping, dancing, parades, fireworks, concerts, night-clubbing and Cirque de Soleil-type performances, possibly ending with a sunrise concert at Millennium Park. Actors and dancers from downtown theaters and the Joffrey Ballet will participate in the festivities. Already, the Cultural Center has agreed to stay open all night that night; Marshall Field's -- to be renamed Macy's this fall -- has agreed to extend its hours until 2 a.m. for the event, and the Chicago Architecture Foundation will hold its first nighttime tours on dedicated CTA trains, Tabing said. Columbia College will hold the Manifest Urban Arts Festival the same evening, and the Chicago Park District will open an urban gardening exhibit at Butler Field. The Chicago Loop Alliance, a business group created last year from a merger of the Greater State Street Council and the Greater Michigan Avenue Association, has beefed up its efforts to find sponsors for Looptopia and similar events as part of its efforts to transform the Loop's gritty urban look into a funky delight. The alliance also will: *Post on its Web site (www.ChicagoLoopAlliance.com) by this spring audio tours of the Loop that people can download for free onto their iPods and MP3 players. The alliance will set up a site downtown where visitors and others can rent audio players with the audio tours installed. The project is funded by a $50,000 grant from the state. *Clean up an alley between State and Dearborn to create the Couch Place theater walkway, including two gateway arches that will connect the Goodman and Chicago theaters. The project is funded with $600,000 in city money. *Install a second mural in the Loop with the help of the School of the Art Institute. The first mural, "Loop Tattoo," is at 63 E. Lake St. sguy@suntimes.com>