Upcoming events related to the 1893 World’s Fair
If you know of an upcoming event, please contact us at worldsfairchicago1893@gmail.com.
POSTS ABOUT UPCOMING EVENTS
Sep. 10, 2025: “When Bathurst Shone on the World Stage” (Bathurst, Australia)
The Bathurst Library will host a talk on Australian participation in the 1893 World’s Fair on Wednesday, September 10, 2025. Local artist and freelance archivist Kim Bagot-Hiller will discuss “When Bathurst Shone on the World Stage” from 2:30-3:30 PM. The Colony of New South Wales sent people and exhibits on a long journey over the water to share what the Colony had to offer, including displays from Bathurst. The event is free and open to the public at the Bathurst Library (70-78 Keppel Street in Bathurst). Part of the New South Wales exhibit in Horticultural Hall [Image from [...]
Sep. 13-Nov 9, 2025: “Nocturne 1893” Haunted House (Schiller Park, IL)
One of Chicagoland’s scariest haunted house attractions invites brave guests to a frightening Fair. 13th Floor Haunted House describes their season attraction “Nocturn 1893”: On the final night of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the lights begin to fade… and something far more sinister takes the stage. You arrive amid the celebration, unaware that behind the dazzling lights, something methodical and monstrous hunts in silence. Guests vanish, rumors spread, and the truth festers beneath the spectacle. The fair’s once brilliant glow has dimmed and the celebration twists into hysteria. You’re not just a witness—you’re part of the madness now. [...]
Sep. 19, 2025-Feb. 28, 2026: “Traces” hints at the White City in Jackson Park
Buildings from the 1893 World’s Fair have been reconstructed in Jackson Park. Sort of. A view of "Traces" looking north from the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, a campus once home to the State Buildings of the 1893 World's Fair. For the past decade, the Chicago Architectural Biennial (CAB) has brought many fascinating, provocative, and engaging installations by architects, artists, and designers to sites around the city. This year’s show, SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, aims to be “an invitation to think with others and to set new grounds for the interpretation and design [...]
Dec. 5-28, 2025: Joffrey Ballet’s “Columbian Nutcracker” (Chicago)
A festive Ferris Wheel, a Dream City, a flurry of snow, dancing dragons, dancing nuts, and dancing rats! It's that time of the year for Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet to stage their spectacular annual production of The Nutcracker, with story set on the fairgrounds of 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Performances run from December 4-28, 2025, at the Lyric Opera House (20 N. Wacker Dr. in Chicago) This ballet by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, which premiered in 2016, invites the audience to … “journey inside Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair ... when young Marie and her mother, a sculptress who is creating the [...]
WORLD’S FAIR TOURS (ongoing)
Chicago Detours offers an “1893 World’s Fair Tour with Bars” that is an interactive walking tour of buildings in the Chicago Loop related to the Exposition.
Mysterious Chicago tour guide Adam Selzer offers two different “Devil in the White City” tours.
Weird Chicago offers a “Devil in the White City” tour.
The Chicago History Museum occasionally offers a “Devil in the White City” bus tour. Check their events page for details.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust regularly offers tours of the Burnham Library in the Rookery Building, where plans for the World’s Fair were formulated.