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Mountain Dew Skate Tour Coming to Grant Park This Summer

By David Matthews | April 14, 2015 5:44pm | Updated on April 23, 2015 1:14pm
 Hundreds of skateboarders from all across the city converged on Grant Park Saturday to try out the city's new 3-acre, $2.65 million skate park.
Grant Park Skatepark Opening Day
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GRANT PARK SKATE PARK — The Mountain Dew Skate Tour will be held in Grant Park's new skate park this summer, organizers announced Thursday.

The Dew Tour, a nationally televised skate and BMX biking competition, confirmed Thursday it will kick off its 2015 season June 20-21 at the new $2.7-million Grant Park Skate Park. The tour, which will be broadcast on NBC, would be the first major event for the skate park since it opened in December.

"What better way to announce that skate park to the country and the world than having the Dew Tour there," Grant Park Conservancy President Bob O'Neill said last week. "It's an amazing opportunity for Chicago."

The skate tour is the latest coup for Grant Park, which will play a prominent role in the upcoming NFL Draft in Chicago, and is hosting Lollapalooza for the 10th time later this summer.

The Dew Tour, which would not require street closures, on June 20 would also share the park with the Chicago Ale Fest nearby at Buckingham Fountain. The second day of the tour, June 21, falls on international Go Skateboarding Day. O'Neill said the event would be free and open to the public. No street closures will be required for the event.

O'Neill said his group has been working with Dew Tour officials for three months on the deal, which was OK'd by Chicago Police and recently received final approval from the Chicago Park District. The Dew Tour last came to Chicago in 2010.

"The Chicago Park District is always interested in partnering with corporations to generate revenue or offer innovative programming in local parks," Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said last week, when DNAinfo Chicago first reported a deal was coming. 

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