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wbezchicago

Non-Profits & Religious Organizations
@wbezchicago
We are Chicago's NPR station and your local news source. Find us on air at 91.5FM. Support public media and non-profit journalism: donate.wbez.org
  • Spirituality & Religion
  • Following 378
  • Followers 89.8K
  • Engagement 4.04%
  • Avg comments 29

About wbezchicago

wbezchicago (@wbezchicago) is a Non-Profits & Religious Organizations creator on Instagram, also filed under Spirituality & Religion. The account has 89,833 followers and 3,345 published posts. Recent posts average 2,080 likes and 29 comments, an engagement rate of 4.04%.

With 89.8K followers, wbezchicago is a micro creator by the common 10,000 to 100,000 definition. Set against 378 accounts followed, the audience works out to about 238 followers per account wbezchicago follows. wbezchicago carries Instagram's verified badge and is set up as an Instagram business account. Flinque files wbezchicago under Non-Profits & Religious Organizations, with Spirituality & Religion as a secondary category.

wbezchicago writes a longer Instagram bio of 26 words. The latest activity Flinque has on record for wbezchicago dates from May 2026.

Story Highlights

Unlocking shows the title and cover image of every story highlight this creator keeps pinned to the profile.

3,345 Posts

Of the 10 most recent posts shown for wbezchicago, 5 are carousels, 3 are single images and 2 are videos. No single format accounts for most of them. With 3,345 posts published, wbezchicago's archive runs well past the 2,000 mark. Against the audience, that is roughly 27 followers for each post published. wbezchicago also keeps 2 story highlights on the profile. All 10 carry captions, averaging 169 words each. The captions are written mainly in English. Words that recur across them include sun-times, chicago, read, said and last.

Forever Mine Music Festival at Union Park centered local Black and brown DJs, vendors, artists and restaurants, creating a distinctly Chicago experience shaped by the city’s own cultural communities.

“This festival feels like it’s for the people — the Black people and people of color in Chicago,” attendee Kayla Williams said. “Chicago’s a unique city where the communities that have been here forever still run this city, even with transplants here. Let’s not forget who really drives the culture.”

One stage evoked the nostalgia of summer drives down Lake Shore Drive soundtracked by Destiny’s Child, Lloyd and Monica. Nearby, pulsing lights and the basslines of DJs Slugo and Kaytranada transformed Union Park into a sprawling house party.

Saturday marked the first day of the Y2K-themed festival, with Sunday’s lineup featuring headliners including Kaytranada and Monica.



(1) DJ Cash Era performs at main stage on day 1 of Forever Mine music festival at Union Park, Saturday, May 23, 2026. | Meridian Eck/For the Sun-Times

(2) Art vendor Big Goat creates the first custom shirt of the day at the in Forever Mine Music Festival at Union Park, Saturday, May 23, 2026. | Meridian Eck/For the Sun-Times

(3) Attendees at Hennessy social club smile on day one of Forever Mine Music Festival at Union Park, Saturday, May 23, 2026. | Meridian Eck/For the Sun-Times

(4) A VIP attendee enjoys the lounge area near the main stage at the Forever Mine Music Festival at Union Park, Saturday, May 23, 2026. | Meridian Eck/For the Sun-Times

(5) DJ Cash Era performs on the mainstage of Forever Mine Music Festival at Union Park on Saturday. Meridian Eck/For the Sun-Times

Story: Somer Van Benton/WBEZ
Photos: Meridian Eck/For WBEZ
Day one of is underway! Vocalo’s sets the scene as fans get excited to see headliners and. ☀️🎶🌼🎡
In the basement of Schubas Tavern in the Lake View neighborhood on Wednesday, only a quarter barrel remained. Tonight might be the night, the bartenders said, looking down the bar at the patrons sitting in front of tapered pilsner glasses etched with the word “Schlitz.”

Shortly after word went out last month that Schubas was down to the last few barrels, people like David Rzeszutko, 31, began flooding in to pay respects. On Wednesday, Rzeszutko was drinking a Schlitz with two friends, and showing off a photo of his cherished thrift store jacket, part of his collection of vintage brand memorabilia.

They’d come to pay their respects, with a sidecar of regret for not drinking more $5 drafts when they could. The Pabst Brewing Company last week put the 177-year-old brand – the “Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous” – on ice, likely for the final time. The Wisconsin Brewing Company is permitted to make a final original spec 80-barrel batch on Saturday.

Read more at the link in our bio or at.

Story: Zachary Nauth/For WBEZ
Photo: /For the Chicago Sun-Times
Aadam Jacobs is obsessed with recording live shows. He started in the ‘80s by sneaking in a tape recorder to indie, rock and punk shows, capturing full audio sets of everyone from R.E.M. at the UIC Pavilion in 1986 to Depeche Mode at the Aragon in 1985 to Nirvana (twice) in 1989, once at Metro and once at the now-defunct Club Dreamerz. And the list goes on.

Thanks to volunteers in the “tapers” community, many recordings from his massive music collection are now digitized. The online archive captures a unique slice of life and culture – an epoch of live music.

“My tapes aren’t going to last forever, and neither am I,” said Jacobs, “and I didn’t want this collection to be discovered long after I die.”

Read more at the link in our bio or at

Story by Selena Fragassi
Video by /Sun-Times and /Sun-Times
A test sampling of Lake Michigan, the Chicago River and other waterways across Illinois found tiny plastics present, posing potential threats to human health and damage to the environment, according to an advocacy group.

In all, 31 test sites, including multiple samplings along Lake Michigan, showed broken down plastics present in the water. Known as microplastics, these small particles are being studied by government and academic researchers for possible links to illnesses, including cancer. Plastics don’t easily break down in the environment and also threaten fish and wildlife.

Single-use plastics, “fast fashion” trends and stormwater runoff from factories using plastic pellets are among the biggest sources of water contamination, the report says.

Other bodies of water found to have microplastics include Calumet River, Des Plaines River, Fox River, Illinois River, Mississippi River, Ohio River, Rock River, Vermillion River, Busse Lake and Skokie Lagoons.

Read more at the link in our bio or at

Story: Brett Chase/Sun-Times
Photo: /Sun-Times
Less than 1% of Cook County residents have flood insurance.

Intense storms, fueled in part by climate change, are expected to get worse in the coming decades. Heavy recent rainfall raises the question whether Chicago homeowners are covered by their existing insurance policy in the event their basement floods.

The answer is probably not.

“Most people do not know what is and is not covered,” says Douglas Heller, director of insurance at Consumer Federation of America.

Here’s what you need to know to figure out if you’re covered — and what to consider if you’re not.

Story: Brett Chase/Sun-Times
Photos:,,, and Giacomo Cain/Sun-Times
Tony winning choreographer Justin Peck will return to Chicago early next year to remount “Illinoise,” his Tony Award-winning dance musical set to the genre-bending Sufjan Stevens album of the same name.

The musical, which headed to Broadway after a lightning fast run in early 2024, will return as a highlight of Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s 40th anniversary season, announced Friday.

Artistic Director Edward Hall told WBEZ/Sun-Times that the return of “Illinoise,” running Feb. 9-March 14, 2027, answers a demand from audiences who missed its sold-out premiere here in 2024 before the production decamped for Broadway and, just under the awards deadline, won a Tony for choreography.

“It was born at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and because of the pressures of the onward life of it, it left very quickly,” Hall said of the production, staged by a live band and dance chorus. “All of us felt that it was unfinished business.”

Peck will direct the production, but casting has not yet been announced.

The 2026-27 season also will feature the world premiere of a Pat Benatar-backed “Heartbreakers,“ based on the classic “Romeo and Juliet.” The show will pull from the rock catalog of Benatar and her creative and romantic partner Neil Giraldo — “known as the Romeo and Juliet of rock and roll,” said Hall – for a 1980s-themed musical set in a dance hall.

Read more at the link in our bio or at

Story by Cassie Walker Burke/WBEZ
Photo by Liz Lauren
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!! We’re introducing our new program: The Vocalo Hotline! It’s a Friday night call-in show hosted by on both Vocalo and, launching May 29 starting at 8 p.m. We’ve been working on this project for so long and are beyond excited to bring it to you!!!

The Vocalo Hotline invites listeners to share song requests, dedications and the human stories that make up the sonic tapestry of Chicago. From late-night reflections to joyful shoutouts, Nudia curates listeners’ real moments into a living soundtrack of the city.

Our playlist is human; call in and be heard. This is what Chicago sounds like.

Want to be part of the action? Leave us a voicemail at or send a voice memo to to leave a song dedication.

TALK SOON!! 🥳
On a recent day, KFire owners Ben Kim and Eddie Hwang had 13 catering orders for lunch and not enough delivery drivers at their fast-casual Korean barbecue restaurant in Old Town. So Kim made an unexpected delivery to the University of Chicago Law School in Hyde Park.

“Everyone wants lunch at the same time,” he said.

For the two friends, it was just another day of navigating the challenges of running restaurants. But KFire’s existence was tested even before opening.

Kim and Hwang launched their first KFire location in Logan Square in July 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many restaurants struggled when government lockdowns crashed business. They grappled with challenges including soaring inflation and supply chain delays.

KFire weathered the turbulence, and in 2023 opened its Old Town location, where much of its catering business is now based. Last year, Grubhub, the Chicago food-delivery company, awarded KFire $5,000 in recognition of restaurants that started during the pandemic.

KFire’s catering business is growing at double-digit rates and accounts for one-third of sales besides takeout and dine-in.

Read more at the link in our bio or at

Story: Amy Yee /Sun-Times

Photo: /Sun-Times
In a busy concert month with Bruno Mars, A$AP Rocky and Kid Cudi playing Chicago, the hottest ticket in town is for a local band that hasn’t been seen or heard from in six years.

When Twin Peaks announced a pair of reunion shows at Thalia Hall last November to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their signature album “Down In Heaven,” tickets sold out within minutes. The band then added six more shows — which also completely sold out — marking one of the biggest comebacks in Chicago rock history and the longest residency ever at the Pilsen venue.

It all kicked off Thursday night. Before the quintet even took the stage, the excitement inside the music hall was palpable. Some fans were one-upping each other on how many tickets they scored for the multi-night run. Others had their arms full of posters and vinyl. Some even huddled in a corner with a loud pre-show chant of “TPD! TPD!” (Twin Peaks Dudes). And on the screen behind the stage was a fitting visual of a “Down In Heaven” candle, symbolizing the eternal flame that’s been burning for the band, once the pinnacle of the beloved DIY rock scene in Chicago.

Twin Peaks returns to Thalia Hall May 15-21.

Read more at the link in our bio or at

Story by Selena Fragassi/For the Sun-Times
Photos by /Sun-Times
Video from Selena Fragassi/For the Sun-Times

wbezchicago's engagement

wbezchicago's engagement rate on Instagram is 4.04%, between 3% and 6%, or 3 to 6 likes and comments per 100 followers. On a typical post that comes to about 1 like or comment for every 25 followers. Likes outnumber comments by roughly 72 to 1, with 2,080 likes and 29 comments on an average post, so most reactions are taps rather than replies.

Engagement rate

4.04%

Avg likes
2.1K
Avg comments
29
Interactions : followers
1 : 25

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Research wbezchicago further

Flinque ranks Instagram creators in Non-Profits & Religious Organizations and Spirituality & Religion, categories wbezchicago is filed under, and its free tools measure the same figures for any public account.

Frequently asked questions

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Who is wbezchicago?

wbezchicago (@wbezchicago) is a Non-Profits & Religious Organizations creator on Instagram, also filed under Spirituality & Religion. wbezchicago carries Instagram's verified badge and is set up as an Instagram business account. wbezchicago writes a longer Instagram bio of 26 words.

How many followers does wbezchicago have?

wbezchicago has 89,833 followers on Instagram (89.8K). Set against 378 accounts followed, the audience works out to about 238 followers per account wbezchicago follows. With 3,345 posts published, wbezchicago's archive runs well past the 2,000 mark.

What is wbezchicago's engagement rate?

wbezchicago's engagement rate on Instagram is 4.04%, between 3% and 6%, or 3 to 6 likes and comments per 100 followers. On a typical post that comes to about 1 like or comment for every 25 followers. Likes outnumber comments by roughly 72 to 1, with 2,080 likes and 29 comments on an average post, so most reactions are taps rather than replies.

What does wbezchicago post about on Instagram?

Flinque files wbezchicago under Non-Profits & Religious Organizations, with Spirituality & Religion as a secondary category. Of the 10 most recent posts shown for wbezchicago, 5 are carousels, 3 are single images and 2 are videos. The 10 recent Instagram captions Flinque holds for wbezchicago repeatedly use the words sun-times, chicago, read, said and last. wbezchicago writes those captions mainly in English. wbezchicago keeps 2 story highlights, which open with a free Flinque account.

How do I contact wbezchicago for a collaboration?

wbezchicago's contact details are not published on Flinque's public profile. The Instagram bio links to 1 external site, and a free Flinque account opens that link. The account is registered as an Instagram business account. Brands with a free Flinque account can shortlist wbezchicago and use Flinque's outreach tools wherever a contact route is on file.

wbezchicago's own Instagram profile is the one outbound link Flinque publishes for the account, and the bio link opens after signing up.

Public profile data sourced from Instagram. Flinque is not affiliated with wbezchicago.

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