Jake Samuels on Elevating Chicago's North Shore Music Scene with SPACE Presents/16OC

Chicago’s never lacked a rich live music scene, but the 16” on Center group has brought a unique artist development philosophy to the mix nurturing acts from the tiny Empty Bottle to the huge Salt Shed. Now, Director of Music Jake Samuels is in the midst of upping the ante of that funnel by amplifying the cosmopolitan suburbs as distinct destinations in Chicagoland. With this weekend’s Winnetka Music Festival (June 19-20), September’s Evanston Folk Festival, and Samuels’ own home base at the club SPACE, he is working to put some of those North Shore towns beyond city limits “on the map” in their own right.

Samuels got his start at Evanston’s 330-capacity music hall SPACE when 16” on Center co-founder Craig Golden was just developing it in 2008. “We didn’t have a mandate to do X number of shows,” he says, “So we got to really discover what it meant to connect with artists that were going to mean something.”

Fast forward to 2013, when 16” on Center’s Golden and co-founder Bruce Finkelman opened the 900-cap theatre Thalia Hall in Chicago’s southwest side Pilsen neighborhood in a historic building modeled after Prague’s Opera House. “Instantly we saw we’re not in that bubble and isolation any more,” Samuels continues. “We now have an outlet to grow with these artists… And that continued with Salt Shed [in 2022], It continued with these Presenting arms, Empty Bottle Presents and SPACE Presents.”

“It’s the ability to grow vertically with those artists to a 900-cap room, a 3,000-cap room and a 5,500-cap outdoor situation, both of those presenting [options], and having these festival concepts available to them. For us, our pipeline is everything.”

Samuel cites singer-songwriter Sierra Ferrell as a perfect example of that. “She played shows at SPACE pre-pandemic, two nights at Thalia Hall post-pandemic. She was our very first headliner for the Evanston Folk Festival, which is the SPACE Presents booking arm and now she sold out our 5,500 cap Salt Shed when she’s lightning hot. As a promoter there’s just nothing that feels better than that.”

As part of that 16” on Center pipeline, Samuels is also especially proud of every “opportunity to put your town on a map” not as a monolithic Chicago destination, but embracing the vibrancy of each suburb. “It’s the ultimate joy in this job.”

Samuels’ SPACE Presents added this weekend’s two-day Winnetka Music Festival to its roster in 2023 in the leafy, lakefront town just eight miles north of Chicago. Last year grew it to “over 7,000 people each day, which was the best year in the 10-year history of that event,” Samuels says, because “It plugs in really well to [our] pipeline.” And the 2026 event, whose two-day passes are sold out, is set to top last year. Headliner Trombone Shorty has played the Salt Shed twice, “so this was a great opportunity to continue to work with that artist without burning them out on hard ticket plays in any of our clubs or spaces. It gives us another tool in our toolbox of booking and building those relationships.”

Samuel’s Evanston, the urban-suburban home of Northwestern University that directly borders Chicago, wasn’t “known for its festivals and nightlife,” he says. But after years of his Out of Space events, the Evanston Folk Festival joined the SPACE Presents portfolio in 2024 as their biggest gamble to date, “because it’s such a narrow concept: folk festivals have a certain connotation that they’re not for everyone. But [because of] the combination of programming and location right on Lake Michigan, the multigenerational vibe of how we bring families in and make it easier for older fans to join us, we are charting towards our biggest year yet, which is what you hope for in year three of a festival.”

The 2026 Evanston Folk Festival, which takes place Sept. 12-13, is headlined by Indigo Girls and Trampled by Turtles and also features the ticketed Chicago-area debut of Joe Devito and Abbie McCallister.

Samuels is looking to grow Evanston’s live-music footprint and 16” on Center’s Chicago-area pipeline even further with SPACE Presents’ focus on the 1,000-cap Cahn Auditorium at Northwestern University, looking to top the almost 25 shows they did there in 2025.

What does the future hold for SPACE Presents and 16” on Center? A 2027 seasonal outdoor series is in the works, “smaller than an outdoor Salt Shed, but bigger than the indoor Cahn Auditorium and Thalia Hall.”

“We’re far more interested in booking things that are compelling, relevant, and fit the right spot in our calendar so that we can keep things eclectic — the right mix for each of our rooms and each of our festivals,” Samuels says. “It’s not about wringing every cent out of the person while they’re there, it’s about getting them to come see shows a little more often than they [otherwise] would.”

_Originally reported by [Pollstar](https://news.pollstar.com/2026/06/19/how-jake-samuels-of-space-presents-16oc-is-bringing-cool-music-fests-to-chicagos-north-shore/)._