Nov. 13--Another Chicago Humanities Festival fall season is about to end Friday, which, for Victor Magar and Deb Oestreicher (in photo above) means their pile of books to read in coming months is now a whole lot higher.
With only Anjelica Huston's Friday event remaining on the festival's and their schedule, the Lakeview couple have retained an unofficial title: They are the festival's most dedicated attendees, according to officials.
This year, they attended 38 of the 112 events on the festival schedule, everything from Patti Smith winning the Chicago Tribune Literary Prize to performers delivering a song from each Tony-winning musical since 1949.
The married couple -- he's an environmental engineer, she's a writer and editor -- say the festival is another, particularly engaging, form of entertainment for them. People make time for movies and theater -- I first interviewed Magar and Oestreicher just before they attended a "King Lear" performance -- so why not clear a couple of weeks to engage with ideas, they said.
"It takes a little bit of effort to get yourself engaged, but once you do you'll see how exciting it is," said Magar, 50. "My colleagues will often be surprised: 'Really, you went to listen to a lecture for an afternoon?' We all feel busy and have a lot going on, but making the time for this is worth it."
A lot of other people apparently felt the same way this year, although perhaps not to the same degree. Final ticket tallies won't be available for a few weeks, but the festival sold an estimated 36,000 tickets this year, compared with 31,500 last year, executive director Phillip Bahar said Tuesday.
Moreover, 49 events sold out this year, versus 24 of the 96 last year, he said.
"It was the combination of theme (Journeys), our 25th anniversary and then a really fantastic lineup," Bahar said.
Also contributing was a new "hub" system, which grouped the festival's talks and performances in specific geographical areas so people could attend more of them more easily, Bahar said.
"We haven't been able to do all the analysis on that yet," he said, "but I absolutely think the hubs created an energy around the individual spaces and within the audiences that was palpable."
As an example, he cited a day of events at the UIC Forum that was largely keyed to journalism and global affairs, mixed with some art, literature and history.
Oestreicher and Magar agreed. "Saturday was especially rewarding," Oestreicher said, "with appearances by Charles Blow, one of Victor's favorite columnists, and David Corn, who had some great insights on our political situation."
The couple have been steady festivalgoers since moving here from Columbus, Ohio, in 2004, they said. They had attended the New Yorker Festival, and when a Chicago friend told them about the Humanities Festival, the fit was perfect.
"It's probably one of our favorite parts of being in Chicago," said Oestreicher, 49. "From the beginning we've typically gone to a lot of events, but more recently it's been really a lot of events."
Before last year's fest, the couple became Charter Humanists by contributing at least $2,500, which, among other benefits, earns you a red badge, and admission and special seating at every event. ("It's better than a tote bag," said Magar.)
Asked why they get to so many events when you can see talks by most of the speakers on the Internet (and you can even see their festival talks as they get posted), Oestreicher said: "It's so much better. Maybe it's old school, but it's really exciting to be in the same place physically with someone special. There's something special about being there."
"For us it's really a form of entertainment," said Magar (who missed four of the events on the couple's schedule because of business travel).
"It sounds a little trivial for a lecture or a talk, but it's a lot of fun."
And although they generally don't do a whole lot of preparation for the speakers they see or take notes during the talks, Oestreicher said, they do come out of the festival with a whole lot of reading to do.
"It kind of drives our reading for a lot of the year," she said.
But there are sometimes limits, even for the most dedicated fans.
"There've been days when I've said, 'OK, I can't deal with people talking at me today,'" said Oestreicher.
Case in point: "We switched out a program on Sunday and dropped the last one because we were too wiped," she said. "Our energy was just about gone. We look forward to a few quiet evenings before going to see Anjelica Huston on Friday night."
sajohnson@tribpub.com
Twitter @StevenKJohnson
