Chicago Auto Show will return to McCormick Place in July, the city’s first major exposition since pandemic began
Postponed this winter by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chicago Auto Show will return in July to its longtime McCormick Place home.
“Finally, the return of our beloved Chicago Auto Show,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced at a news conference Tuesday.
The 113th annual show, which normally runs in February, is scheduled to take place July 15-19, with exhibits both inside and outside McCormick Place. It will use an electronic ticketing process and timed entry to regulate attendance and control crowd capacity throughout the day, organizers said. For the first time, it will include outdoor events, with test tracks and technology demonstrations along Indiana Avenue and surrounding city streets.
“We knew we had to design the show to fit the situation we found ourselves,” said David Sloan, general manager of the Chicago Auto Show.
The announcement marks the first major exposition to return to Chicago since the pandemic hit. The February 2020 auto show was one of the last major events before the convention industry was shut down by stay-at-home orders.
“We were one of the lucky ones in 2020,” Sloan said.
Launched in 1901, the Chicago Auto Show is one of the largest in the U.S., and a revenue driver for the city. Expectations for this year’s show are modest, with attendance likely to be substantially lower than usual, officials said.
The downsized version will be cut to five days, from 10 days, and shifted to the West Hall, with half the normal indoor exhibition space at about 470,000 square feet. The show will also use about 100,000 square feet of outdoor space. Ford has committed to using some of the outdoor space to exhibit its new Bronco, Bronco Sport and all-electric Mustang Mach E-SUV, Sloan said.
The Camp Jeep and Ram Truck test tracks will be indoors, as in past years.
The show is planning a nightly street fest along Indiana Avenue with food vendors and entertainment.
Advance and same-day tickets will only be sold online. Attendees will need to wear masks and fill out a medical questionnaire before entering. Sloan said proof of vaccination against COVID-19 will not be required.
Tickets will cost $13 per day for adults, the same price as last year. The fee for automakers to participate has been reduced, Sloan said.
Last spring, an idled McCormick Place was converted to an alternate medical care facility to handle overflow COVID-19 patients if area hospitals became too crowded. But the facility went largely unused and began to wind down operations in May.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday she plans to fully reopen the city by July 4, with no capacity limits, if the rate of COVID-19 infections and hospital admissions continues to decline. That would be welcome news for Chicago’s beleaguered tourism industry, which has been among the hardest-hit sectors during the pandemic.
Since March 2020, there have been 230 events canceled at McCormick Place, costing the city a projected 3.4 million attendees and nearly $3.1 billion in economic impact, said Cynthia McCafferty, a McCormick Place spokeswoman.
There are 43 events scheduled at McCormick Place this year, starting with the auto show in July.
“We are optimistic that that number will continue to grow,” McCafferty said. “We have continued to see great interest throughout the pandemic and have a number of new prospects pending.”
The Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont announced Tuesday it would be resuming trade shows in July, with about 30 events on the books through the end of the year. The Rosemont facility typically hosts about 70 trade shows per year, drawing up to 1.5 million visitors and generating $800 million in annual economic impact.
News of the returning auto show comes as the ongoing global semiconductor shortage continues to roil production across the auto industry. Ford Motor Co. has extended the shutdown of its Chicago Assembly Plant for five weeks until at least May 14, and projected it will build 1.1 million fewer new cars in 2021 due to the chip shortage.
The plant on Chicago’s Southeast Side, which makes the Ford Explorer, Lincoln Aviator and Police Interceptor SUVs, has been shut down since April 12, idling about 5,200 employees working three shifts.
