Last night, July 3rd, was Chicago’s big Independence Day celebration (featuring music, fireworks, etc.) downtown in Grant Park. It was unbelievably crowded, as the fireworks and performances are done in conjunction with the hugely popular and hugely crowded Taste of Chicago food festival.

Photos are in chronological order and numbered from top:
1. I showed up around 7pm, took this picture of the ferris wheel and then proceeded to mix in with food fest crowds and shoot very few photos.

2. It’s super crowded near the food stalls, and even chin level hip shots of jammed up people prove difficult. So I move over to the fountain area, which is still crowded but a bit more manageable.

3. Apparently there was a lot of gang activity at this thing, and at this point, about 7:50pm, some sort of dust up happens between some kids and the police. The gang kids started yelling or fighting or something, the police decided to move in and the crowd panics a bit and scatters. In the minute or so that it takes the police to get through the crowd to the scene of the disturbance, everyone involved has run. They filtered to the other side of the fountain and continue doing whatever it was that brought the cops in the first place. Meanwhile, families and tourists and such keep entering the area in order to get a spot to watch fireworks.

4. After about five minutes of weirdness, a squad of heavily armed soldiers moves into the area. The automatic-weapon toting, camo-wearing, non-police presence momentarily spooks everybody (including me). A collective “WHAT?!?” spread through the area… and then people started to laugh at the overreaction, as it became apparent that the soldiers, National Guard maybe, were just there to look scary and pacify people with their presence.

5. So the soldiers scared people and cast a nervous pall over the proceedings, but at the same time they became sort of a spectacle. Teenagers started walking up to them and taking photos of them with their cell phone cameras while the soldiers stood with stone faces. In this photo some young people are checking out their photos of the soldiers and showing their friends in disbelief. The man in the middle in the red hat is turning his head towards the video screen because it’s 8pm and he hears the orchestra strike up the Star Spangled Banner.

6. Everyone kinda just stood there as the national anthem played and watched the soldiers watch us. It was spooky and funny and I had a very “this is super American” moment.

7. and 8. The twilight was last gleaming, sort of, and I shot a few more frames of people hanging out in the fountain area waiting for the fireworks. The soldiers left after about ten minutes, but shortly thereafter mounted police showed up on their horses and rode circles around the fountain until dark. I left before the fireworks.

Sam’s car was stolen Tuesday. ugh.

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