Advisory Council, Neighbors Craft 2013 Calendar

The 2013 calendar of events at Wicker Park is beginning to take shape.

The Wicker Park Advisory Council hosted a meeting with community members and representatives of other neighborhood groups on Jan. 15 to begin the process of bringing events and programming to the park for the next year. Attendees went through the calendar together, claimed tentative dates for events they wanted to host and began to coordinate with advisory council members and Park Supervisor Dan Puente about matters such as permits and fundraising in order to bring their ideas to life.

"What we want to do is, as a community, create events and programming that makes the park really work together with the park district so that all ages can be here," Advisory Council Secretary Doug Wood said.

According to Wood, park programming is planned out in this January meeting each year in order to allow plenty of time for permits and documentation as well as to include as many of the park's events as possible in fundraising efforts throughout the year.

"It's important now to know pretty much what people want to do so that your work can be included in grants that will be written and in fundraising campaigns," he said.

There are certain procedures that must be followed when it comes to bringing an event to the park. In order to avoid or reduce the fees involved with hosting private events at the park, individuals or organizations can work with the advisory council to request a programming production partnership with the park district.

Once an event date is booked with the park, the advisory council will get all relevant information from the group and then fill out paperwork requesting a formal partnership and all permits necessary for the event. The council will also write a letter requesting the partnership and list the ways the group or event benefits the park and the community's development.

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In addition to taking care of the official documentation, Wood said the council also helps people determine whether their events require liability insurance and, if so, helps them to secure coverage. Examples of events that would require liability insurance include anything involving animals, inflatable bouncing play areas for children or events with attendance of 500 or more.

Some of the events slated for the upcoming summer include four open mic nights, four movie nights, four classical music concerts, 13 puppet shows from The Magic Boat Show, three yoga classes and the annual Learnapalooza event. Fall and winter programming will include Boo-Palooza, the holiday fountain decorating social and corresponding Family Fun Fest, a series of seven landscape design lectures and a seven-week landscape design workshop.

Event information will be posted to the advisory council's website as the finer details of each program are worked out and finalized.