Details emerged this week about the planned inauguration festivities for Mayor-Elect Rahm Emanuel. Turns out, he's looking for inauguration "co-chairs" -- for a price.
On Tuesday, the Chicago News Cooperative reported that it had received an invitation to the inauguration, which detailed the various levels of contributions the Emanuel camp is seeking. A gift of $50,000 earns a donor the "co-chair" status, which comes with four tickets to a set of inauguration events: a Saturday afternoon concert on May 14th, a reception at Venue 1 on the Near West Side, an evening dinner with the mayor-elect, and the inauguration itself on Monday the 16th.
Donations of $25,000, $10,000 and $5,000 earn donors various smaller packages of tickets, the CNC wrote.
After the leak, the Emanuel campaign scrambled to get official information about the inauguration publicized. On Thursday, it launched "Chicago Together," the official inauguration website, with more information.
That website says that inauguration events will be kicked off with a citywide "Day of Service," with 30 volunteer projects happening Saturday morning in neighborhoods around the city. Anyone can register for those events on a Chicago Together website.
Following that event will be a free concert in Butler Park, the same event that "co-sponsors" received four tickets to. Headlining that concert will be the long-running band Chicago and funk-soul group J.C. Brooks and the Uptown Sound will also appear at the concert, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Registration on the Chicago Together homepage is required to get printable free tickets to the concert, which starts Saturday at 1 p.m.
Details of the swearing-in ceremony were also released: it will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, May 16th, at Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. It is open to the public, the mayor-elect's office says.
Incoming city clerk Susana Mendoza and returning city treasurer Stephanie Neely will also be sworn in at the ceremony.