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Chicago — the band, not the city — has been at this longer than most of their fans have been alive, and on June 26, 2026, they bring more than five decades of horn-driven rock and ballad craft to the outdoor amphitheater at CMAC in Canandaigua. If you’ve never seen them live, that streak ends here.
About the Show
Founded in 1967, Chicago occupies a strange and singular place in American rock history: a band commercially associated with soft-rock power ballads who built their foundation on genuinely sophisticated jazz-influenced arrangements, political ambition, and one of the most distinctive brass sections the genre has ever produced. The tension between those two identities is what makes their catalog so durable — and what makes their live shows so much more interesting than casual listeners expect.
They’ve lost founding members over the decades, most painfully guitarist Terry Kath in 1978, and the lineup has evolved accordingly. But the current configuration carries the standard with discipline and evident pride. Lee Loughnee on lead guitar and the band’s surviving brass core — James Pankow, Walt Parazaider, Lee Loughnee, and Robert Lamm anchoring from the keys — deliver these songs with the fluency of musicians who have played them thousands of times and still mean them. The hits are all there: “25 or 6 to 4,” “Saturday in the Park,” “If You Leave Me Now,” “Hard to Say I’m Sorry.” The deeper cuts, for those who know to want them, are there too.
This is the kind of show that rewards a proper outdoor setting, and CMAC provides one.
Venue Info
The Constellation Brands-Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center — CMAC to everyone who’s been there — sits in the Finger Lakes wine country outside Canandaigua, New York, with a capacity of roughly 15,000 spread across a reserved pavilion and an open hillside lawn. The amphitheater’s sightlines are excellent from nearly every vantage point, and the natural bowl of the landscape provides acoustic properties that amplified outdoor venues often sacrifice. On a late June evening, with the Finger Lakes light doing what it does at dusk, there are worse places to hear “Saturday in the Park” than here.
Parking lots open well before showtime. Canandaigua’s downtown — five minutes from the venue — offers dinner options that make an early arrival worthwhile. Full venue details at CMAC. Regional context at Finger Lakes.
Tickets & Pricing
Tickets begin at $62 for this one. For a band of this catalog depth and touring longevity, that entry point is reasonable — and the upper lawn is one of the more pleasant ways to spend a summer evening in the Finger Lakes.
Reserve seats through Live Nation: Get Tickets
Secondary market inventory is available through TicketNetwork for those who wait and find prime sections gone.
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