The Cicadas are Coming!
Get ready, folks! The 2024 emergence is set to be absolutely SPECTACULAR, and we're gearing up for a celebration like no other! This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience you won't want to miss. You might be thinking, "Cicadas come every year, right?" Well, hold on to your hats because this year is EXTRA special—it only happens once every 221 years!
Starting this May, Brood XIII, Brood XIX, Illinois 17-year, and Illinois 13-year cicadas are all making their grand return simultaneously. Picture trillions of cicadas emerging together, spreading their wings, and serenading our city with their enchanting songs. It's a sight to behold, a symphony of nature under our city lights—a night of pure magic and everlasting love!
To mark this tremendous occasion, we've lined up an array of cicada-themed events, activities, and, of course, plenty of ART! Join us in celebrating this extraordinary moment in nature's grand theater. Let's make memories that will buzz with excitement for years to come!
Cicada Parade-a 2024
Cicada Parade-a is a large-scale collaborative art project organized by The Insect Asylum and Formstone Castle Collective that will be on display in and around Chicago starting in May and running through the end of summer 2024. This project celebrates once-in-221-year re-emergence of Broods XIII and XIX, Illinois’ 17-year and 13-year cicada broods. The periodic cicadas returned by the trillions to Illinois during spring and summer 2024 to re-emerge, sing, and meet others. We will be placing sculptures to increase traffic to places of interest around town from the streets to the parks, inspiring people to explore and find other cicada sculptures, creating joyful encounters that can spark transformative conversations and promote social change. To aid in this effort, this year we are going to include an option for our incredible artists to label their cicada with an identity indicator so we can recognize, represent, and understand the how many different communities and cultures make up our diverse and special collective of Cicada Lovers. If you’d like to host a Cicada to be on the Cicada Parade-a “route” and drive traffic to your business, fill out the interest form below.
Adopt a Cicada!
Artists get sculptures for FREE if they agree to display them publicly! The number of cicadas available for artists is based on donations and sculpture sales. If you’d like to help support the project, buying a cicada sculpture directly pays for materials and expenses which allows us to give away more sculptures to artists. Sponsorship is another way to help provide more sculptures to artists. Sponsorship comes with perks such as cicadas being displayed at your location for everyone to enjoy. Check out the sponsorship page for more details. Visit the official 2024 website to learn more about this years Chicago takeover or the 2021 site to see the Baltimore activation !
Adopt, Sponsor, Buy, or Host a Cicada
Learn more about our Rooftop Garden
Check out more events for Cicada Fest and TIA
