Bitter Jester Music Festival: Live Music Returns To Highland Park

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Live music is coming back to downtown Highland Park. After the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of the in-person portion of last year's Bitter Jester Music Festival, the competition for young musicians and bands returns with its Friday night weekly concert series starting next month in Highland Park.

Four weeks of Friday night concerts will each feature six bands or solo artists, as well as showcase bands who will perform during deliberations by a rotating panel of judges made up of industry professionals.

Instead of counting down to Independence Day, the 15th season of live music from up-and-coming musicians begins at Port Clinton Square on July 23.

That's because city officials postponed until Labor Day weekend its traditional July 4 fireworks and festivities at Wolters Field — which in recent years has included the grand finale of the music festival.

Bitter Jester Music Festival Founder Nicolas DeGrazia hopes to see bands from four states among the two dozen participants in this year's competition, which has increased its maximum age of eligibility to 22 to allow for those who missed out last year to participate.

"You may not totally dig one of the bands but stick around for 20 minutes and you'll hear something completely different," DeGrazia told Patch. "But all of the performers are going to get professional-level feedback from working musicians and entertainment professionals. They get pages of written feedback, they get all of their numerical scores."

Participating bands also receive a live audio commentary from Michael Tseitlin, the festival's director of education. Plus, he said, Tseitlin, a five-time festival competitor and current music teacher at Stevenson High School, acts as one of the festival’s liaisons between performers to help connect young musicians who may have similar interests.

DeGrazia said participants in past years have reported appreciating the educational elements the festival offers, as compared to some other musical competitions that may leave participants unsure why they won or lost.

"That's the kind of environment that we're creating, and it's also pretty different from most competitions, where you lose and you're pissed off at the band that won," he said. "We're not about that."

Now creative director and co-founder of a television and web production company, DeGrazia said he has assembled a panel of skilled judges and a keen eye for talent himself. And in addition to the four winners from the Friday night performances, he and other senior organizers pick four more wild card bands.

"I was in marching band for seven years and I was a performer," he said. "I don't get to do that anymore, and there was never an event like this when I was in high school, so I just really enjoy reconnecting with my own teenage musical roots."

Originally, the festival was limited to high school musicians. It shifted to a requirement that at least half the band had to be in high school, eventually evolving to allow those who had recently graduated before changing to a hard age cap of 21, which DeGrazia said he expects to return next year.

Compared to the start of the competition 15 years ago, when there were at least a half-dozen bands just from Highland Park High School, the festival's founder said there has been a decline in the number of bands in the area. That has corresponded with an increasing number of performers from outside the immediate geographic area.

"There are not a lot of bands, and because we're a competition where you do age out, this is not an adult competition, we're focused on nurturing emerging artists in a really crucial time in their development but at a certain point we kick them out of the nest, so we need to be constantly replenishing the supply of performers," DeGrazia said.

The city of Highland Park foots the bill for audio, lights and other basic costs to put on the free shows, while the Highland Park Community Foundation also contributes to help cover the operating expenses.

“It has become a summer tradition to attend Bitter Jester concerts on Friday nights in Downtown Highland Park and the Grand Finale Concert at Wolters Field,” Mayor Nancy Rotering said in a statement. “The work done by the Bitter Jester Foundation for the Arts is incredibly positive and healthy for our youth and the City looks forward to continuing its support in the future.”

For 2021, First Bank of Highland Park has become the title sponsor of the grand finale event and kicked in prize money to allow for an increase in the cash prizes. Grand prize is now $1,000, with $750 for runners-up and $500 for an honorable mention.

The season is expected to feature about 100 musicians from dozens of cities. Last year, the competition went virtual, with 56 entries in a song competition that were judged remotely by over 80 professional musicians, including Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, all of whom provided detailed feedback in notes to the participants.

The first place winner of the virtual battle of the bands was “Keep Two Stepping” by Pretoria. “Shell City” by Feed the Monkeys earned second-place honors, with “Your Anything” by Double Identity taking third, an honorable mention for "Sleigh” by Tess Clare & Maddie Renner and “Collapse” by F.L.A.M.E. voted fan favorite.

The 2021 application submission deadline for artists and bands is June 26. Late applications will be accepted for an additional $10 fee until July 10. Concerts are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on July 23, July 30, Aug. 6, Aug. 13 and Sept. 5.