Chicago musician Chance the Rapper announced Tuesday that he was named the grand marshal of the 2017 Bud Billiken Parade and will organize the event, which is scheduled for Aug. 12.
“Your boy Chance the Rapper, I’m the grand marshal of this year’s Bud Billiken Parade,” Chance said in an Instagram video. “Maybe you don’t know what that means. I’m coordinating the Bud Billiken this year.”
Chance, who was named the parade’s grand marshal last month, promised to bring along some “friends” to the event. [[415727543, C]]
The Bud Billiken Parade, which has been held annually on Chicago's South Side since 1929, is the second largest parade in the country and celebrates the start of the upcoming school year.
Following “unsuccessful” meetings last week with Gov. Bruce Rauner, the Grammy Award-winning artist made headlines on Monday when he announced that he’s donating more than $1 million to Chicago Public Schools as the underfunded district continues to languish amid the state’s ongoing budget impasse.
Last month, organizers also announced that the South Shore Drill Team would participate in this year’s parade after withdrawing from last year’s event for the first time in decades.
For 35 years, about 170 of the award-winning performers have marched in the parade, but after learning that parade organizers were limiting entries to 100 performers, members of the team made the difficult choice to abandon the long-standing tradition for the 2016 parade.
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Previous Bud Billiken attendees include Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, and then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama, who served as the parade’s grand marshal in 2007.
“We finna turn up,” Chance said in the Instagram video. “Come through Aug. 12th."
