DePaul and WNBA basketball won’t be the only forms of entertainment coming to the South Loop when Wintrust Arena opens this fall. Today, Bob Dylan was revealed as the headliner of the arena’s very first concert, which will take place on Friday, October 27. The legendary folk singer-songwriter will be joined by Chicago gospel and soul singer Mavis Staples, who once turned down a marriage proposal from Dylan in the early ’60s (that seems to be water under the bridge these days).
With seating for more than 10,000 people, Wintrust Arena is about half the size of other Chicagoland arenas, such as the United Center (which seats 23,500 people) and Allstate Arena (which seats 18,500 people). Reconfigured to accommodate a stage, Wintrust’s capacity for a concert might be closer to 6,000 people—the relatively smaller capacity could work to the venue’s advantage, presenting another option for larger acts that might have trouble filling a more cavernous indoor space.
If you want to see how Wintrust’s acoustics stack up during a rendition of Dylan’s “Tangled Up in Blue,” you’ll need to grab tickets when they go on sale via Ticketmaster on Friday, September 15 at 10am.