Bitter Jester Music Festival in Highland Park to raise money for local businesses

People had high hopes of a fun time in Highland Park during Independence Day weekend, but those plans were quickly brought to a tragic halt when gunfire rang out at the Fourth of July parade. Now, the official July Fourth concert has been turned into a benefit concert that you can experience this weekend. Nicolas DeGrazia, founder of the Bitter Jester Music Festival, joined Good Day Chicago on Friday to talk about it.

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. - Musicians who had to hide under bleachers during the Highland Park Fourth of July parade attack will perform this weekend.

The bands were all scheduled to be part of the Bitter Jester Music Festival, but on that day a gunman forced them to take cover and the event was originally canceled.

But now, the battle of the bands-style event is back and will help raise money for Highland Park businesses.

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"We're gonna have 13 different artists performing. Eight of them are going to be in competition, eight different bands. So we'll be picking a winner at the end of the night. It's going to be a wide variety of music. All of that is going to be sort of the same festive atmosphere," said Nicholas DeGrazia, founder of the festival.

"But obviously, there's this somber component too because we are coming together for, in some ways all the right reasons and in other ways all the wrong reasons. But we're trying to make the best out of this situation and pay tribute to the businesses that were shutdown during the FBI's investigation in downtown Highland Park."

Organizers say the artists are all excited to come back, despite what happened.

The concert will kick off Sunday at 4 p.m. at Madame ZuZu's.