Overview Square Roots is a three-day street festival on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago's Lincoln Square, and unlike most city street fests part of its music plays indoors, in the concert halls of the Old Town School of Folk Music. More than 50 acts play four stages, and the festival says it pours the biggest Midwest craft beer selection of any Chicago street fest. Entry is by gate donation, and the money goes to two nonprofits that run it together: the Old Town School and the Lincoln Square Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce. The school, founded in 1957, calls itself the largest community school of the arts in the country, with more than 700 group classes a week and over 400 concerts and community events a year. On site The festival closes Lincoln Avenue between Montrose and Wilson, a short walk from the Western stop on the Brown Line. In 2026 the outdoor North and South stages carried the headliners, Maurer Hall inside the school ran indoor sets, and the East Lobby held dance lessons from dabke and flamenco to line dancing and hula. The Kid Zone at Leavitt and Sunnyside runs a family stage on weekend afternoons. Food runs to vegetarian, gluten-free and vegan, and the bars pour local craft beer, vodka cocktails, THC seltzers and non-alcoholic options. Audience This is a neighborhood crowd: the festival says 79% of attendees live on Chicago's North Side, most within two miles of Lincoln Square. Families come for the Kid Zone, where Old Town School youth classes perform alongside acts like Wiggleworms and the Raging Chihuahuas. Talent and Influencers Margo Price, Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets, Hurray for the Riff Raff, JD McPherson, Robbie Fulks, The Soul Rebels and DEHD played in 2026. Earlier bills carried The New Pornographers, Superchunk, Real Estate, Son Volt, Calexico, Guided By Voices, Fatoumata Diawara and the Mekons. Track record The Old Town School ran the Folk and Roots Festival in Welles Park from 1998, and in 2012 it moved onto Lincoln Avenue as Square Roots, run with the chamber. Proceeds fund the school's scholarships and artist residencies in Chicago public schools, and the chamber's placemaking and small-business workshops. WGN-TV, WBEZ, WXRT, the Chicago Tribune and Block Club Chicago have all covered it. Brand presence Sponsorship levels are named for the festival: Songs, Kegs, Hops, Growlers, Fiddles and Banjos. The top level is presenting sponsor with possible naming rights; Kegs names an indoor stage and is the level where exclusivity is offered; Growlers names a busy corner of the site such as bike parking or the art tent. Booths scale from 10 by 10 feet up to 10 by 50. Brands can also print the beverage wristbands and cups or join a door-to-door mailing, and in-kind donations of ice, fencing or printing count toward a sponsorship at their dollar value.