Redbull didn't give wings to chicago

a few weekends ago we went out of our way to get to the "Redbull Flugtag" event. in short, it's a wacky contest in which people come with their home-made flying machines, and try to make them fly. The only rule is that the 'machines' should only use human energy for fuel (with or without redbul).

I had very high expectations, since i've been to one of these events a few years ago, in Park Hayarkon in Tel Aviv. (here are some examples from the TA event.)

we were deeply disappointed.

First, let me say that Chicago has A LOT to learn from Tel Aviv, when it comes to crowd control, and the overall planning of a multi-participant event.
There were lots of people, as could be expected -- the weather was nice, and Chicagoans are just looking for things like that to do towards the end of summer, when cold-stay-at-home winter is around the corner. However, whoever designed this event set the stage so that only a couple hundred people can see it well. the other thousands had to figure it out somehow. the entire site was fenced with barricades, forcing you to enter and leave through 'gates'. you can imagine the stream of people trying to squeeze in and out, and the bottlenecks it caused. when we got there they were so packed, that they closed one gate to entry (people were flowing out of it, trying to escape the mess and disorder inside), so we had to walk all the way around till we found a way in.
the people trying to escape should have been a sign for us to stay away, but we came all the way by train -- so we didn't want to give up so soon.
we found a way in (between the toilets and the ambulance parking) and tried to squeeze in between the people and find a point from which we can see something. anything.
now would be a good time to explain the area:
this is a satellite image of the part of the beach.

this is the organizer's map (to which i added some stuff):
the 'L' shaped black thing is the 'stage' on which the flying machine were pushed and from the end of which they jumped into the water.only people standing in the red-marked area could really see anything. the rest had to satisfy their curiosity with looking at the screen, which was pretty good quality, but only faced north.

anyone standing to the south of the stage could not see ANYTHING, because the large screen, that was facing away from them, obscured the entire show.


so, in order to actually see any of what's going on, you HAD to be in the compound. you can easily see from the air picture above that there's lots of room for people just to the south, and it would have been great, if the design of the site had allowed them to see anything.
the stage is plenty visible even from far away down the beach:


The TA comparison, the stage was visible from almost anywhere in the park. crowd was easily managed regardless of the number of bikes, rollerblades, strollers and what not that people came with. there were huge screens and sound system that allowed you to lay down on the grass and enjoy the show, even if you decide to find yourself a more secluded corner far from dense areas.

back to Chicago, the view is obstructed for 75% of the beach. Our guess is that this layout was partially engineered by the city, who wanted to minimize traffic and onlookers between Oak Street Beach and North Beach. or, maybe Red Bull wanted to trap people in a confined area where they can hammer them with advertisements and make them buy their (overpriced) products.

Regardless of who made the event suck, don't waste your time going to the Chicago Flugtag next year!

(on a brighter note, we did enjoy the walk down the beach and the burrito we got on the way :))