As summer winds down and another school year approaches, generations of Chicagoans gathered Saturday along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive for the 97th annual Bud Billiken Parade and Festival. Young performers in costume rest in the shade before the start of the 97th annual Bud Billiken Parade and Festival in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026. Credit: Kenn Cook Jr./Block Club ChicagoThe parade dates to 1929, when Chicago Defender founder Robert S. Abbott organized the first Bud Billiken Parade as an extension of the newspaper’s Bud Billiken Club, which was created years earlier to encourage and celebrate Black youth. Kenn Cook Jr./Block Club Chicago Credit: Kenn Cook Jr. for Block Club ChicagoYoung people remain at the heart of Bud Billiken. Credit: Kenn Cook Jr./Block Club ChicagoSaturday was the first time Chanell Pickett and her daughter, Chloe, attended the Bud Billiken Parade together.