🎂🏙️ CHICAGO FOR CHICAGOANS' 10TH BIRTHDAY PARTY! 🎉📚

🎂🏙️ CHICAGO FOR CHICAGOANS' 10TH BIRTHDAY PARTY! 🎉📚

Come hang with some of your favorite Chicago tour guides—Patti, Anthony, Will, Mandy, Leyla & yours truly, Giovina! 🏙️❤️

Ten years of pay-what-you-can Chicago history tours deserves a PARTY! 🎈

Chicago for Chicagoans is turning 10, and we're celebrating the best way we know how: with history, ridiculous shoebox dioramas, beer, cake and a whole lot of Chicago nerds! 😂🏙️

Our tour guides, lecturers, board members, staff and longtime volunteers are creating shoebox dioramas about Chicago history—yes, just like we made in school. Except these are being made by highly educated, crafty history dorks. 🤓🎨

And it's a COMPETITION! 🏆 There will be prizes, ribbons, trophies and, naturally, some questionable judging decisions.

📅 Sunday, October 4, 2026
⏰ 2:00–5:00 PM
📍 Belmont Tavern
3405 W. Belmont Ave.
Chicago, IL 60618
🎟️ FREE! REGISTRATION OPENS SEPTEMBER 20!
👉 RSVP HERE:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chicago-for-chicagoans-10th-birthday-party-registration-1997398337195

⚠️ CASH ONLY!
Belmont Tavern accepts cash only and has an ATM on-site.

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🎨 THE GREAT CHICAGO HISTORY DIORAMA SHOWDOWN!
Our creative tour guides and volunteers will unveil their ridiculous Chicago history dioramas, and YOU get to vote for your favorites!

🎟️ Every attendee receives one popular-vote ticket.

💵 Want more voting power? Additional votes can be purchased for $2 each.

And yes, you're encouraged to bribe the judges. 😂

### 🕑 THE AFTERNOON

2:00–3:00 PM
🍺 Grab a drink at the cash bar
🎨 Browse the dioramas
🗳️ Cast your popular vote
👋 Mingle with Chicago history lovers
3:00–4:00 PM
🏆 Judges announce the Top 10 dioramas
🎤 Finalists participate in short interviews
🙋 Audience can listen, ask questions and, naturally, heckle
4:30 PM
🎂 CAKE!
🏆 Contest winners announced
🥇🥈🥉 1st, 2nd & 3rd place prizes
🎖️ Popular Vote winner
🏅 Honorable mentions
🏆 Goofy trophies and ribbons!

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🏙️ ABOUT CHICAGO FOR CHICAGOANS
Chicago for Chicagoans was founded in 2016 by Patti Swanson, a tour guide, historian and preservation enthusiast who wanted Chicagoans to better understand and appreciate the city they call home.

The organization creates inclusive, pay-what-you-can walking tours designed by and for Chicago residents, with the goal of representing the histories of all Chicagoans.

Many of you will recognize Patti and her fellow Chicago for Chicagoans guides from neighborhood walks we've enjoyed over the years. Patti is a wealth of Chicago history and architecture knowledge—and always entertaining!

Chicago for Chicagoans is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

💰 Tours are pay-what-you-can, with a suggested $10–$20 contribution appreciated. You can also support the organization by attending tours, spreading the word, leaving reviews and donating.
🌐 Chicago for Chicagoans:
http://www.chicagoforchicagoans.org/

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🍺 ABOUT BELMONT TAVERN
We're celebrating at Belmont Tavern, a historic Chicago bar located on the first floor of a roughly 135-year-old building at Belmont and Kimball.
After sitting dormant for about 25 years, the tavern reopened in late 2025 as an homage to the neighborhood's history, while also bringing a serious cocktail program to the area.
🍸 Top-tier cocktails
🍺 Old Style on draft
🍷 Beer & wine selections
🥨 A few basic shelf-stable snacks
💵 CASH ONLY — ATM AVAILABLE
🍕 OUTSIDE FOOD: WELCOME!
The historic tavern does not have a kitchen and only offers a few basic shelf-stable snacks, so you're welcome to bring food in from nearby restaurants or have delivery sent directly to the bar.

Grab some food, grab a drink and settle in for an afternoon of Chicago history and fun! 🍕🍺

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🚇 GETTING THERE
🚆 Public Transportation:
Use Google Maps or the CTA Trip Planner for the best route.
🌐 CTA Trip Planner:
https://www.transitchicago.com/planatrip/
🚗 PARKING:
Metered parking is available on Belmont, with some free parking on surrounding side streets.
⚠️ Watch carefully for no-parking and permit-only signs.

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⚠️ RSVP / NO-SHOW POLICY
✅ Please only RSVP if you are 95% sure you can attend.
✅ Update your RSVP if your plans change.
⏰ RSVP changes must be made before the event begins. After the start time, message the event host directly.
👋 Please check in with the host when you arrive.
❌ Three no-shows without updating your RSVP = 3-month restriction from future events.
Continual no-shows may result in removal from the group.

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🎂🏙️ TEN YEARS OF CHICAGO HISTORY!
Come celebrate a decade of learning about this amazing city with some of the people who make exploring it so much fun.

History + dioramas + beer + cake + Chicago tour guides + Chicago nerds = pretty much our perfect party. 😂🏙️🍺🎨

Come vote. Come heckle. Bring some food. Come eat cake.
And come celebrate 10 years of Chicago for Chicagoans! 🎉