Live on Logan Closes Out Its 7th Season at Palmer Square Park — And the Encore Comes Sunday
By Socialhood News · Palmer Square ·
Palmer Square Park had one final Sunday afternoon to remember this month. On September 13, the free outdoor concert series Live on Logan wrapped up its 7th season with a performance in the park, closing the book on a summer of world-class live music that ran every Sunday from July 12 through September 13, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. For neighbors who made the weekly pilgrimage to the park's lawn with a blanket and a picnic basket, it was a bittersweet sendoff — and a reminder of just how much cultural weight this small, volunteer-driven series carries for the neighborhood.
The series, organized by the Palmer Square Park Council, has grown into one of the most beloved free music traditions on Chicago's Northwest Side. Seven seasons in, it draws a reliable crowd of regulars who treat Sunday afternoon in the park as sacred — a two-hour stretch of live jazz, funk, and world music beneath the park's elm canopy, free to anyone who shows up. This summer's run featured an eclectic lineup that, in past seasons, has included artists like Pat Mallinger's Quartet (performing the music of Sonny Rollins), the J. Davis Trio, and Marcel Bonfim's Funkeria — a testament to the council's commitment to booking genuinely accomplished musicians rather than settling for background entertainment.
The Palmer Square Park Council, which organizes Live on Logan entirely through volunteer effort, keeps every performance free to the public. For neighbors who want to help sustain the series into an eighth season, the council accepts donations via Venmo at @Palmer-Square — a small contribution that goes directly toward bringing that caliber of musician back to the park next July.
The park itself, of course, is no ordinary backdrop for a concert series. Palmer Square Park's 7.69 acres sit at the western edge of the neighborhood, framed by historic greystone architecture along the Kedzie Boulevard corridor. The park received its Level I arboretum accreditation from the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program in September 2025 — making it the first Chicago Park District location ever designated as an accredited arboretum through ArbNet, a program administered by The Morton Arboretum. Hearing live music under those trees carries a little extra meaning when you know the canopy overhead is officially recognized as one of the city's most carefully stewarded urban forests.
But the park's community calendar doesn't go quiet just because the concert season has closed. This Sunday, September 27, Palmer Square Park is the meet-up point for Trash People x PBR GO PLOGGING, a community litter-cleanup event that merges the Scandinavian fitness trend of plogging — jogging while picking up trash — with straightforward neighborhood stewardship. The event kicks off at 6:00 p.m. at the park's landmark Hand sculpture. It's free, open to all fitness levels, and exactly the kind of grassroots, show-up-and-do-something event that has long defined how Palmer Square takes care of its own green spaces.
Taken together, the close of Live on Logan's 7th season and Sunday's plogging event paint a picture of a neighborhood that treats its park as a genuine community living room — a place for music and picnics in the summer, and for collective stewardship when the season turns. If you made it to even one Live on Logan performance this summer, you already know what the series means to the neighborhood. If you missed it, mark your calendar for July 2027 and show up on the first Sunday. And if you want to do something for the park this weekend before the leaves start to fall, lace up your shoes and meet at the Hand on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. The park gave you a whole summer of free concerts — an hour of plogging is a pretty fair trade.
Sources:
1. https://do312.com/events/weekly/sun/live-on-logan-live-music-chicago
2. https://www.palmersquareparkcouncil.org/wp/
3. https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/palmer-john-mcauley-square-park
4. https://allevents.in/chicago/logan%20square