A free summer series where neighborhood DJs, from first-timers in middle school to veteran selectors, blend, flip and build new music on the spot. Young musicians from the neighborhood play live alongside the decks, and every night peaks with the Theme Clash, where a movie, TV or game theme collides with a hit everyone knows. Every Wednesday evening, June 2 to September 1, 2027.
A beginner DJ controller now costs about the same as a pair of sneakers, and free software runs on a laptop or a phone. Kids in South Shore are teaching themselves to mix, and so are their parents and grandparents. Almost none of them have a place to play for a real crowd. Rainbow Wednesdays gives them one, on the lakefront, every week of the summer.
Our DJs don't just press play. They blend two songs into a third, flip a classic into something new and answer the crowd in real time. The audience hears music that didn't exist until that minute.
Young drummers, steel pan players, horn players, keyboardists and violinists from neighborhood schools play over the DJ's loops. It's a band and a booth at the same time.
A twelve-year-old who started last winter can play back-to-back with a selector who has rocked parties since the 1980s. Each one teaches the other something.
A rainbow is ordinary light split open to show every color it was carrying. Rainbow Wednesdays does that with sound. House, reggae, R&B, footwork, gospel, Afrobeats and hip-hop are all already in this neighborhood. Each Wednesday turns one of them into a color for the night, and then the DJs start mixing.
One color and one sound each week. The season works through the whole spectrum, so nobody's music is left out.
Red and yellow make orange. A sitcom theme and a reggae hit make a song nobody has heard. That's the Theme Clash. A DJ and a young drummer make a third thing too. That's the Live Lab.
Twelve-year-olds and seventy-year-olds, first-timers and veterans, every block of South Shore. The more kinds of people on the beach, the better it sounds.
A thirteen-year-old cues up the record her grandmother danced to in 1979, lays it over a footwork beat, and her grandmother hears her own song brand new. The music isn’t replaced; it’s carried forward. That’s a blend, and blends make new colors.
A kid in Tokyo spins Chicago house. A kid from Bronzeville plays Afrobeats, and another learns roots reggae from a sound system. On Rainbow Wednesdays any young person can take on any sound, from any part of the world, and make it their own. The crowd is the rainbow.
Fourteen Wednesdays is exactly the seven colors twice. Each week's color sets the flyer and the lights on the DJ booth, and the crowd is invited to wear it. And it all happens, fittingly, at Rainbow Beach.
Every night follows the same structure, so performers know what to prepare and families know what to expect. The music changes every week.
Three 10-minute slots for first-timers of any age. Sign up at the table; a mentor DJ stands beside you.
Four young DJs, 15 minutes each, chosen through the season's open call. The heart of the night.
The featured DJ builds a track live while young instrumentalists improvise over it, starting from a beat and a loop.
The signature segment. A theme everyone knows meets a killer, well-known song, blended live, with the MC on wordplay. See how it works.
A youth DJ and a veteran trade songs one for one to close the night.
Music ends. The crew and volunteers load out and do a litter sweep. Off site by 9:00 pm.
Every Wednesday has one segment where wordplay and genre-mixing take center stage. A DJ takes a theme the whole crowd knows instantly and collides it with a killer, well-known song, live, so that both become something new. The MC rides the blend with wordplay, and the audience calls out the next pairing. Each week's Theme Clash is cut to fit that night's sound: sitcom themes over Chicago house, game music over footwork, movie scores over a reggae riddim.
The score everyone hums, dropped into a dance-floor hit.
The intro to the show you grew up on, flipped into a summer anthem.
Classic and current video-game music, from 8-bit to orchestral, blended with a banger.
The ad song stuck in your head, made into something you actually want stuck there.
Saturday-morning songs for the kids, with a beat their parents remember.
Stadium chants and arena organ riffs meet a crowd favorite.
Phone chimes, notification sounds and the clips everyone has seen online.
The ice-cream truck, the school bell and the radio station intro, mixed into the groove.
Every Theme Clash pairing is cleared for a family audience. Themes are used briefly, the way a DJ quotes a hook, not played in full.
Clips from DJs and musicians around the world doing what Rainbow Wednesdays does every week: themes flipped into club records, violins played over a DJ's set, and kids young enough for kindergarten on the decks. Tap any card to watch on YouTube.
The famous one. DJ SMACKS drops the Peanuts theme into a club set, and the room loses it. This is the Theme Clash in one clip.
Watch the shortOpen-format sets that jump from hip-hop and R&B to oldies, house and show tunes. A model for the Theme Clash.
ChannelProbably the best-known DJ doing this online. Blends, mashups and edits, followed by hundreds of thousands of people.
ChannelDancehall mashups played on violin over the riddims, from Sean Paul and Beenie Man to Buju Banton. This is what Riddim & Steel and Roots & Culture nights sound like.
VideosPlays violin, DJs and sings, sometimes all in one set. His “DJ + Violin” house sets are the Live Lab exactly. Over a million subscribers.
VideosBilled as “the world’s youngest DJ,” he gets Wembley Arena dancing on BGT: The Champions. Proof that a kid behind the decks can move any crowd.
Watch the performanceToddlers back-to-back on the decks, flipping “The Wheels on the Bus” into hard house and “Mary Mack” into a club remix. Theme Clash, nursery edition.
ShortsAn elementary-school DJ playing a public set at a community market in Japan. That's Open Decks.
Watch the setA young scratch DJ who has won the DMC Middle East title twice, and who battles her dad, DJ Shock, on camera. That's Generations Back-to-Back.
ChannelThese are outside examples of the format, shown for illustration. None of these artists is booked for or affiliated with Rainbow Wednesdays.
Each week has a color and a sound. The first seven Wednesdays travel red to violet; the next seven go around again; the Finale ends in every color at once. The themes are a starting suggestion; the artists, park staff and neighbors will shape the final list.
The whole first cohort of youth DJs, introduced one by one.
The sound this city gave the world, re-edited by kids who were born long after the warehouse days.
Spirituals, soul, funk and protest songs sampled and blended into something new.
Caribbean-American Heritage Month. Steel pan and hand drums in the Live Lab over reggae, soca and dancehall riddims.
The South Side's own fast, dance-led sound, with a dance circle in front of the booth.
Every set is split between a youth DJ and a veteran.
Talking drum and percussion in the Live Lab.
Roots reggae and sound-system style, three days before SelassieFest on July 24.
Great R&B originals, plus sing-over covers that carry them into reggae and other genres. DJs who can get the whole beach singing the words out loud.
Church musicians and choir kids join the Live Lab.
Every slot, the MC included, goes to performers under 18.
An extended Live Lab with a full youth ensemble playing with the featured DJ.
The season's best Theme Clash DJs face off, judged by crowd noise.
The Theme Clash final, a showcase of every youth DJ, and a set from the whole season's Live Lab players. It ends in full spectrum, with all fourteen nights' colors and sounds on the beach at once.
All dates are requested, not confirmed. Final dates, times and the performance area are set with Rainbow Beach Park and the Chicago Park District.
You don't need expensive gear or a following. You need a set you're proud of and the nerve to play it.
Free spring workshops (April–May 2027) on beatmatching, blending, live looping and playing with musicians. Starter controllers are available to borrow. The classes run in the Rainbow DJ Lab.
Play a 10-minute Open Decks slot on any Wednesday, with a mentor DJ beside you.
Send a short mix or phone video to the open call. Selected youth DJs get a paid 15-minute Showcase slot.
Play your way into the Theme Clash semifinals and the September 1 Finale.
The open call and workshop sign-ups open in spring 2027, after the series is approved. To be notified, register your interest in the DJ Lab or write to us using the details at the bottom of this page.
More than half of the cash budget goes straight to artists, and a third to young people from the neighborhood. The full line-by-line budget is in the full proposal.
| Where the money comes from | Amount |
|---|---|
| Additional grants and sponsors (to raise) | $15,000 |
| Illinois Arts Council — Creative Projects (to apply) | $8,000 |
| Local business sponsors (to raise) | $2,000 |
| Ras Tafari Inc. cash | $1,320 |
| Ras Tafari Inc. in-kind: sound system, canopies, producer time | $7,900 |
| Total project value | $34,220 |
| Where it goes (cash) | Amount |
|---|---|
| DJ, musician and MC fees | $14,650 |
| Sound technician and youth crew apprentices | $4,480 |
| Equipment: starter-gear lending library, generator | $2,490 |
| Insurance, background checks, documentation | $2,800 |
| Promotion, signage, finale accessibility | $1,900 |
| Total cash budget | $26,320 |
| When | Step | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 7, 2026 | First conversation with Rainbow Beach Park staff | Done |
| Oct.–Nov. 2026 | Review the series with Rainbow Beach Park leadership and walk through the park spaces | Next |
| Nov. 2026 – Feb. 2027 | Apply to the Illinois Arts Council and other grants; recruit sponsors; line up the featured DJs | Planned |
| Mar. 2027 | Park meeting; confirm dates, performance area and permits with Rainbow Beach Park staff | Planned |
| Apr.–May 2027 | Open call for youth DJs and musicians; free spring workshops; auditions | Planned |
| June 2, 2027 | Opening night | Planned |
| Sept. 1, 2027 | Season finale; then a report back to the park | Planned |
Dates are proposed, not confirmed. Grant and sponsor funding is not guaranteed.
A rainbow needs every color, and so does this series. Below are 28 kinds of partners we'd love to bring in, grouped by color. Most aren't the usual arts partners. Some could take one Wednesday; others could shape the whole season. None of them are signed on yet. This is the list we're bringing to the park and the neighborhood, and introductions are welcome.
The grandparent who teaches a dance on Old School night brings the family back for the Finale. The music teacher who sends one drummer in June sends a section in August. The barbershop that sponsors Blue week nominates next year's youth DJ. Every partner feeds the next Wednesday, and the young people who start in the audience end the summer on the decks.
Chicago Park District, South Region. The host park. We began the conversation with park staff on October 7, 2026. Nothing is approved yet.
Ras Tafari Inc., a Chicago 501(c)(3) cultural nonprofit and the producer of SelassieFest, prepared this proposal. Rainbow Wednesdays is a Ras Tafari Inc. program: we would produce the series, bringing the sound system, the crew, the insurance and the paperwork.
Park staff, parents, music teachers, DJs and neighborhood businesses: we'd love to hear from you.