House music's giants gather at Northerly Island for fest

Frankie Knuckles, dubbed the godfather of house music when he was spinning at legendary Chicago dance clubs such as the Warehouse and the Power Plant in the early '80s, arrives at the summit of a 20-year road this weekend.

Move! The 2006 Chicago International House Music Festival makes its debut Saturday and Sunday at the Charter One Pavilion on Northerly Island with 16 deejays and artists.

It boasts a cross-section of Chicago talent that includes house pioneers Knuckles, Steve "Silk" Hurley, Andre Hatchett and Jamie Principle, and second- and third-generation stars such as Maurice Joshua, Dajae, Ralphi Rosario, Terry Hunter, Derrick Carter and Lady D. It has a strong international presence, with powerhouse deejays such as David Morales and Danny Tenaglia, as well as South Africa's Glenn Lewis, making his first Chicago appearance.

Its timing is impeccable, arriving at the end of the Gay Games, which promises to draw plenty of house fans to Chicago. And the price is relatively modest: $35 for a one-day pass, and $60 for the weekend. (A similar dance festival Saturday in Los Angeles with Deep Dish and Paul Oakenfold is charging $75, and a Tiesto and Deep Dish appearance at Northerly Island on Sept. 2 is $60). Promoters expect as many as 8,500 people to attend each day.

Yet Knuckles, who organized the event in partnership with a promotions group that includes his manager, Frederick Dunson, and the Illinois Bureau of Tourism, is choosing his words carefully leading up to the event.

"I'm glad I'm here to see this happen," he says. "Overall, it's a great occasion."

While gratified that house is finally getting some recognition in its hometown, Knuckles has heard the grumbling from various factions of the Chicago scene: There aren't enough Chicago performers. The ticket prices are too high. The location isn't ideal. The Illinois Family Institute, an organization that says it "defends marriage, family and the sanctity of life in the Land of Lincoln," campaigned against the festival because it was partially funded by a grant from the Illinois Bureau of Tourism to encourage gay tourism.

"There are a lot of haters, but I did the best I can do," Knuckles says.

To many in the house community, what Knuckles and his associates accomplished by bringing a house festival to the lakefront is nothing short of a miracle.

"It only took 20 years," says Joshua. "It's about time. It should have been part of Chicago's summer a long time ago."

"I thought this would happen overseas, not Chicago," says Principle, who will perform for the first time in five years. "It's been hard to get recognition in our own city. Nobody really understood how house was affecting people's lives. It wasn't just music, it was a way of life. They got that in Europe, but not here."

Though house music originated in the West Side and South Side dance clubs in the early '80s and transformed music around the world by the end of the decade, it has remained something of a pariah within its own community.

While the city actively promoted itself as the home of the blues, it not only ignored house, it sometimes took steps that were perceived as hostile to its very existence. In 2000, the Chicago area dance scene was linked to three deaths, and the media ran wild with stories about rampant abuse of the designer drug ecstasy at raves. That year, the city passed an ordinance that placed property owners, promoters and deejays in line for $10,000 fines if they were involved in an unlicensed dance party. The ordinance was passed without public discussion.

In 2001, another ordinance was passed holding building owners and managers criminally responsible for hosting house parties where drug use occurred. The crackdown left a stigma that made it more difficult than ever for law-abiding fans, deejays and promoters to schedule events, and to bring out-of-town talent to Chicago. Just as rock 'n' roll had divided previous generations, dance music cleaved the city into warring extremes: the powerbrokers seeing it as a corrupt force that need to be banished before it drove their sons and daughters to drugs and an early death--and the young fans and participants embracing it as the soundtrack of their lives that should be allowed to flourish anywhere, anytime. But the climate started to thaw a few years ago. The city's Department of Cultural Affairs began sponsoring a deejay series as part of its SummerDance festival in Grant Park.

Move! The 2006 Chicago International House Music Festival
When: 1-11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Where: Charter One Pavilion at Northerly Island, 1300 S. Linn White Drive
Price: $35 per day, $60 for two-day pass; 312-223-0165 or www.chicagohousemusicfestival.org
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