Matthews festival rocks Chicago South Side

Organizers say nearly 30,000 fans turned out for the opening of The Dave Matthews Band Caravan on Chicago's far South Side Friday. The music festival runs through Sunday at the old U.S. Steel plant site along Lake Michigan and is expected to draw nearly 100,000 people, making in the biggest entertainment event on the South Side since the 1933 Worlds Fair, the Chicago Sun Times said. Matthews and more than 30 other bands were on the bill for the Caravan, including Friday's performances by the Drive By Truckers and Ray Lamontage. Matthews himself played a three-hour set on one of the venue's three stages. The festival was more than a music event. It was a christening of sorts for Chicago's Lakeside Development, a massive real estate project that will eventually turn the old steel works site into housing for 50,000 people plus retail space, a marina, and even a high school. Developers of the ambitious project said the Caravan provided concessions jobs for some of the locals and could become an annual event.