Square Roots Turns Lincoln Avenue Into the Whole Point

There is a specific joy to a Chicago street fest done right, and Square Roots — this weekend, July 10–12, along Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Square — is the platonic version. Two stages, a stretch of closed-off boulevard, craft beer in plastic cups, and a lineup that quietly out-punches things four times its size. If you only make one outdoor music weekend before Lollapalooza swallows the calendar, make it this one.

The headliners tell you exactly who Square Roots is for. Friday belongs to Dehd, the Chicago indie-rock trio whose reverb-drenched, big-sky songs have become a genuine hometown export; they top a bill that also includes local heavies Deeper and New Orleans' The Soul Rebels. Saturday is the marquee, with alt-country lightning rod Margo Price headlining above Hurray for the Riff Raff and — crucially — a deep bench of Chicago talent: fingerpicking wiseman Robbie Fulks, the harmony-drunk duo Finom, and left-field favorite Grelley Duvall. Sunday closes with British pub-rock founding father Nick Lowe backed by masked instrumentalists Los Straitjackets, plus JD McPherson, Bowie tribute act Sons of the Silent Age, and Chicago Celtic-punk institution The Tossers.

What makes Square Roots more than a very good lineup is the architecture around it. The festival is a benefit for the Old Town School of Folk Music, which means the whole thing is threaded with the School's DNA — student ensembles, mariachi and string groups, an unshowy commitment to teaching people to actually play. You will see a headliner who has played arenas and, an hour earlier on the same street, a youth string band that has played exactly one festival. Both belong.

The craft-beer angle is not incidental either. Lincoln Square's tie to German brewing heritage turns the fest into a legitimate tasting event, dozens of pours deep, and the neighborhood's storefronts — the delis, the apothecary, the giant painted eyeball of the old Merz building — do the rest of the scene-setting for free.

The move, as always, is to ignore the headliners for a while. Get there when the gates open, plant yourself at the smaller stage, and let the RPA Ensemble, Chaparelle, Tierra Roja, and Mariachi Jaguar Juvenil remind you that "local" is not a consolation category in this city — it is the main draw with a later set time. Then drift back for Dehd on Friday and let those guitars ring out over a street that, for three days, is closed to everything except the point.

Suggested donation gets you in; the music, the neighborhood, and the low-key civic pride are the actual product. Bring cash, bring a friend who thinks they don't like folk music, and let Lincoln Avenue change their mind.

Sources: Square Roots Festival 2026 — JamBase; Square Roots Festival; Block Club Chicago: Square Roots Returns