Attend RE·VER·BER·ATE 2026
Join us for our annual RE·VER·BER·ATE Festival from May 5 to 8, 2026. Across four days, CPS student performers bring the Chicago Cultural Center to life with original music, dance, theater, and multimedia performances. View the program linked below for more information about attending the festival.
- Where: Chicago Cultural Center
- When: May 5 to 8, 2026
- Admission: Free and open to the public
About the Festival
RE·VER·BER·ATE is a celebration of creative expression and student voice, bringing together young artists from all over Chicago for an unforgettable week of art-making, performing, and connection.
More than a performance opportunity, RE·VER·BER·ATE is an immersive learning experience. Students don’t just take the stage, they explore new ideas, engage in collaborative workshops, collaborate in open jam sessions, and connect with professional artists and peers from across the city! Set in the heart of downtown at the historic Chicago Cultural Center, the festival invites students to share their creativity in one of the city’s most iconic venues while discovering the power of the arts to build community, spark dialogue, and celebrate who they are.
Singers, dancers, bands, theatre groups, solo acts, and ensembles of all styles and experience levels are welcome to apply! Beyond performances, the festival offers workshops, an arts fair, open jams, visual art exhibitions, and opportunities for students across the city to come together to perform, create, and connect.
Partnering with The Chicago Cultural Center and the Design Museum of Chicago, RE•VER•BER•ATE serves as a testament to what happens when our students, teachers, and arts professionals of Chicago come together to create a truly unique event for our CPS artists.
This event is free and open to the public. We encourage families, staff, and community members to attend the festival and support our 2,000 student performers across the four days.
If schools are interested in bringing additional students from their school as audience members, we ask that you reach out to our team at reverberate@cps.edu.
What Does RE•VER•BER•ATE Offer?
RE·VER·BER·ATE brings together students, teachers and professional artists from across Chicago for a festival focused on celebrating student performance and artistic expression.
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Performances
RE•VER•BER•ATE features student performances including large and small instrumental, choral, theater and dance ensembles.
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Exhibitions
RE•VER•BER•ATE hosts the All-City Visual Arts (ACVA) Elementary, High School, and Senior Portfolio exhibitions.
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Arts Fair
RE•VER•BER•ATE student participants learn about opportunities and programs throughout the city. See this year's presenters below.
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Workshops
RE•VER•BER•ATE features workshops for students led by professional artists. View the 2026 workshops below.
Open Jam
Songwriting Open Jam with Columbia College Chicago
Join Emcee Andre Daniels from Columbia College Chicago and his "Songwriting 1" class as they present original music. Bring a song you've written that you'd like to perform, or learn more on how to workshop one based on your ideas.
How to Participate in RE•VER•BER•ATE
Selection Process for RE•VER•BER•ATE
RE•VER•BER•ATE seeks to offer a platform to as many student artists as possible over the course of the festival days. When curating the festival, the RE•VER•BER•ATE team works in collaboration with additional partners to purposefully ensure an acceptance list that fully represents the breadth and depth of the arts across Chicago Public Schools. This includes artistic discipline, experience level, geography, cultural diversity, and instrumentation. We strongly encourage submissions that represent the lived experiences of students and educators across Chicago.
The selection process involves the expertise of the Department of Arts Education, the Arts Teacher Leadership Team, and the Arts Student Voice Committee (ASVC).
