Ravinia Festival did worry, a little, about the cicadas competing with musicians for picnickers’ attention this summer.
After all, the parklike setting does have a lot of trees. And trees — at least in some parts of the Chicago area — mean cicadas.
So the Ravinia staff pushed back the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s season to July 6, about a week or two later than usual, in the hopes that the noisy critters will have mostly mated and died by the first notes of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major. They pushed a few low-volume performances inside.
And then they waited. And waited.
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“We have seen a few [cicadas] here and there,” said Amy Schrage, associate director of communications for the Highland Park-based music venue, which kicked off its summer season this week.
But enough to prove distracting to folks trying to enjoy a little music and brie under the stars?
Nope, Schrage said.
“We haven’t heard much noise yet,” she said. “We have been walking around and try to take notice.”
Around the southern and western areas of the park populated by large, old trees, they have spotted some empty cicada husks — telltale signs the red-eyed insects are around. But, “we haven’t seen them in an incredible amount,” she said. “It’s very strange.”
Schrage sounded almost disappointed. Almost.
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