Joliet Park District officials announced Wednesday morning that there will be no Taste of Joliet in 2026.

Park officials said in a news release that they will host a “brand-new event” in 2027.

The Taste of Joliet has been the biggest summer festival in Joliet, drawing big-name music acts and tens of thousands of visitors for three days of concerts.

What replaces it has not yet been decided, but it will be different, park district Executive Director Brad Staab said.

“The Taste as we know it – three days, 12 hours a day – is not coming back," Staab said. “I think it will have a completely new name, a completely different time.”

Whether the new event should be scheduled for late June, as has been the tradition, is one of the matters being reconsidered.

“I don’t know if there’s ever a safe time to do it, but we’ve had some extreme weather in recent years,” Staab said.

He noted 100-degree temperatures at the 2025 Taste of Joliet. Extreme heat and rain can dampen attendance and revenue at the event.

Staab noted the Taste of Joliet was in its 20th year in 2025, which prompted the decision to look at doing something different.

“I think it’s just 20 years of doing the same event the same way,” he said. “We thought it was time to take a breather.”

Park officials over the years have alluded to the work and volunteer efforts required to stage Taste of Joliet, which was suggested again in the news release announcing the end of the event.

“We are a park district, not a music venue, yet we provided top-level artists year after year,” park board President Sue Gulas said in the release. “Special thanks to our amazing staff and volunteers who transformed a stadium into a concert venue and put on an event of this level for so long. Stay tuned for 2027!”

Costs add up

What 2027 will look like is not clear, although Staab said the new event is likely to be at Memorial Stadium, the location for Taste of Joliet.

“We’re assuming, at this point, that it will be back at the stadium,” he said.

The Taste of Joliet has “never lost money,” Staab said.

But it has come close at times, including this year, when the profit was $500 at an event in which revenue and expenses basically broke even at $1.16 million.

Attendance was 42,000.

Ticket and beer sales have been the largest source of revenue, but they covered little more than half of the costs this year. Revenue from tickets and beer was $645,000.

The event has been highly dependent on corporate sponsorships, and corporations this year contributed $325,000 to the Taste of Joliet.

Joliet Mayor Terry D’Arcy, has been a major sponsor of the event through his car dealerships since Taste of Joliet was restarted in 2006. D’Arcy joined Staab and Gulas in an appearance on WJOL-AM Radio on Wednesday morning to announce the decision to end Taste of Joliet.

Taste of Joliet originally was held in the 1980s on a much smaller scale and was phased out before the park district brought it back in 2006.

The event has grown over the years, with the park district lining up big-name entertainment including budding stars, established musicians and nostalgic favorites.

The park district listed some of the musicians brought to Joliet through Taste of Joliet, including Kenny Rogers, Sammy Hagar and Pat Benatar.

The music stage also has been the biggest cost of the event, easily soaking up revenue brought in this year by ticket and beer sales.

According to the park district, main-stage costs, including musician contracts, totaled $830,000 this year.

The second-largest cost was event setup – including tents, portable toilets and trash removal – which was $140,000.