11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Harris Stage/ Pioneer Court/ 401 N. Michigan Avenue

What’s a festival without music? Enjoy LIVE performances on the Harris Stage throughout the day to jump-start your Holiday season! Performances by 101.9 FM The Mix artists, the Plain White T’s, Mitchel Musso presented by Radio Disney, Justin Roberts and the Not Ready for Naptime Players, Ralph’s World and more can be seen throughout the day.

11:00 a.m.
Justin Roberts and the Not Ready for Naptime Players

11:45 a.m.
The NOGGELER Guuggenmusig performs on Pioneer Court

12:15 p.m.
Ralph’s World

1:30 p.m.
The Radio Disney Road Crew

2:00 p.m.
Mitchel Musso presented by Radio Disney

3:00 p.m.
Plain White T’s presented by 101.9fm THE MIX

3:30 p.m.
Underwriters Laboratories presents Safety Smart Super Challenge hosted by Radio Disney

“Pure Fun” — Entertainment Weekly

“Some of the most inspired and intelligent kids lyrics ever.” — Amazon.com

Like a scene from “Groundhog Day,” the event repeats itself over and over. Bass and drums pound out the beat in perfect unison. Bodies spring to their feet and rush the stage; jumping, dancing and bouncing off each other like bumper cars. The concertgoers behave like children. Which is no surprise because they are children, participating in the kiddie mosh pit found at nearly every Justin Roberts concert.

Justin Roberts is truly one of the “all-stars” of the indie family music scene. He logs thousands of miles on the road each year, leading some to call him the hardest working man in children’s show business. With national awards and recognition and a devoted fan base, Justin and his wonderfully named bandmates “The Not Ready for Naptime Players” dish out unexpectedly intelligent and whimsically rocking music for kids and their parents.

Justin’s latest CD, Pop Fly, is filled with 11 high- energy pop hits spanning topics from a dandelion watching ballplayer to a girl’s unusual hairstyle in which funky characters of all shapes and sizes take up residence. There are images of permission slips, first days, and grandmother’s home cooking. Gently plucked piano strings, vintage synthesizers, tender trombones, pounding drums, and giant electric guitars emerge on this journey through the pop flys and pratfalls of childhood. It’s yet another Justin Roberts home run filled with witty lyrics, sing-along choruses and touching insights. It continues a hot streak that started in the early 90s.

With Pop Fly, Justin has clearly found his groove and is swinging for the fences. To paraphrase an old Saturday Night Live baseball skit, kids’ music has been berry berry good to Justin Roberts.

Traveling to Chicago all the way from Lucerne, Switzerland, The NOGGELER Guuggenmusig is bringing Carnival to The Magnificent Mile Lights Festival presented by Harris! This premier carnival band offers a very special brand of music and fantastic costumes that bring greetings from Chicago’s Sister City Lucerne!

These days there may be lots of rockers making kid-friendly records, but there’s only one Ralph Covert, an irrepressibly enthusiastic performer who rocks just as hard for kids as he does for grown-ups. Perma-grin on his face, lime-green Chuck Taylors on his feet—even at the Grammys!—his traveling circus of catchiness known as Ralph’s World is equally loved by cool-seeking parents as it is by children, fortunate to be living in an era where their music both rocks and respects their intelligence and curiosity.

Look no further than The New York Times, which said, in a front-page Arts section story, “It is possible that Mr. Covert will turn out to be [the] genre’s Elvis Presley, or at the very least its Elvis Costello.

Covert is the ringmaster of a packed tent of creativity, even beyond Ralph’s World. He’s an award-winning playwright, has written books (including the circus-themed Sawdust and Spangles), and music for adult theatrical dramas and children’s musicals. He also still plays gigs with his grown-up rock outfit, The Bad Examples—to say nothing of the Ralph’s World videos that put his winning personality into family rooms worldwide. Given all that, it’s no wonder that Disney sought out the indefatigable performer for its Disney Sound label, which is releasing ‘The Rhyming Circus,’ Ralph’s World’s latest.

With Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana” dominating television and the big screen over the last three years, co-star Mitchel Musso made a promise to himself: No matter how popular he became, he would not be one of those teen stars who records a hurry-up CD just because he could. If the time came to make an album, he would remain true to his highest musical instincts. Promise made; promise kept. With his adventurous self-titled debut album for Walt Disney Records, Mitchel proves himself every bit the showman behind the microphone that he is in front of the camera.

Though best known as the endearing Oliver Oken on “Hannah Montana,” Mitchel has been playing music since he could ride a trike. Adept on piano, guitar and drums, Mitchel is also an accomplished singer/songwriter. He performed multiple times on “Hannah Montana,” and he also previously scored three Top 10 hits on Radio Disney, including the searing, “The In Crowd.” But with his debut solo album, Mitchel takes center stage as a full-blown musical artist.

“I put all my heart in it,” Mitchel says, “and it did turn out like I hoped, but we took a few different roads.” To help him travel those roads, Mitchel worked with esteemed producers/songwriters such as S*A*M & Sluggo (named Rolling Stone Hot List Producers of the Year for their work with Metro Station, Gym Class Heroes and others), Max Martin (Katy Perry, Carolina Liar), Curt Schneider (Five for Fighting), and Matthew Wilder (No Doubt). Mitchel himself co-produced two tracks “How To Lose A Girl” and “Shout It” with his production company M3 Music, both written by PJ Bianco.

The album features two songs co-written by Mitchel: “How to Lose a Girl” and “Shout It” (Mitchel’s brother, Mason Musso of Metro Station, sings on the latter, which is a nod to Metro Station’s double-platinum hit, “Shake It”). Overall, the album is a collection of heart-on-the-sleeve pop/rock gems that will surely resonate for Mitchel’s teen peers.

Tom Higgenson – guitar/vocals
Dave Tirio – guitar/vocals
Mike Retondo – bass/vocals/horns/woodwinds
De’Mar Hamilton – drums/vocals
Tim Lopez – guitar/vocals

As the Plain White T’s learned over the last two years, there’s something unreal about success. One minute you’re sweating your ass off on stage in some dive. The next, your song is #1 and your CD has sold more than a million albums worldwide. One minute you’re listening to “Rubber Soul” on your iPod; the next you’re a Song of the Year nominee at the Grammys and Ringo Starr is saying hi to you. Unreal. Yet staying real is precisely what the Plain White T’s are all about. So on their new Hollywood/Fearless CD, Big Bad World, they passed on the digital bells or whistles. Instead, producer Johnny K pressed the ‘record’ button and the band simply played its heart out.

And there’s plenty of heart on Big Bad World. Says singer/songwriter Tom Higgenson, “We tried to be really ambitious and not worry about people’s expectations for this record.  Our vision was to do it in a classic way.” To that end, the band only used gear or instruments made before 1970: vintage guitars, old Vox amps and Leslie speakers, a Ludwig drum set circa 1966. They even recorded without a click track (equivalent to walking a high-wire without a net). Because they recorded it live, you might hear imperfections. But in the case of “Big Bad World,” those imperfections worked perfectly.

“Our songs in the past had a ‘50’s and ‘60’s influence with classic songwriting structures and harmonies,” says Tom. “This time we decided, rather than punk that out and make it sound modern, we would record as though it could have been done by the Beatles or early Tom Petty. We got to a place where we sounded good live 300 nights a year, so we wanted to capture that.”

Of course aiming high means nothing without good songs. Fortunately, coming off a smash hit like “Hey There Delilah,” Higgenson felt inspired. “There was no second guessing,” he recalls. “If I thought something was good, I went with it. The album is 10 songs, very concise and to the point.”

The Chicago based band, together for a decade, is still on a road of self-discovery. Formed during Tom’s teen years when he saw his life laid out before him at Chicago’s famed Metro club, the band built a steady following over the years and miles. They were invited to the Warped Tour (three times), opened for bands like Jimmy Eat World, and released two indie CDs their 2002 debut, Stop and 2005’s All That We Needed.

The band signed with Hollywood Records, releasing Every Second Counts in 2006 and putting “Hey There Delilah” out as a single. The track hit #1 on Billboard and iTunes (becoming one of very few songs ever to log more than 3 million downloads), propelled the CD into a worldwide hit, and earned the band two Grammy nods, Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.