February 19-22, 2026
Commuter Registration
Paint the Town was conceived as a vacation / staycation type of event - structured around those staying at the hotel for the entire weekend. Unfortunately, this focus has made it a bit challenging for our local Chicagoland community to participate. As such, we are introducing a new commuter registration specifically designed for our local community members.
How it works
Basically, we are offering a $10 registration for Chicagoland locals. This will provide all the benefits of a regular full weekend registration (a $45 value) with one exception - no access to our professional photographer, who will be working during our happy hour events. Everyone is welcome at happy hour, but if you want the services of our photographer (to get great pics of your outfit), then a regular registration will be required. Note that we do offer one day registrations, which includes photographer access.
Why is registration necessary?
The central issue is the event schedule. In a perfect world, we could post the schedule publicly and people would attend the events that work for them. In the real world, several problems arise from such an approach.
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Most restaurants require reservations. So, we have a signup form to make sure there is space for everyone who wants to attend.
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Restaurants charge for no shows. The very modest registration fees of Paint the Town are there to minimize no shows. We figure that if one is putting money down, then we expect they’re reasonably serious about actually attending. So, we only send the event schedule and signup form to those who have paid the registration fee.
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A more recent concern is the current political climate. For the safety of everyone, it seems prudent to not have our entire whereabouts posted publicly.
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We don’t actually know the schedule yet. Many of our favorite entertainment venues have yet to post about what they’re doing or who is playing that weekend. So, we typically don’t finalize the activity schedule until mid January.
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Sometimes the schedule needs to change at the last minute. Registration provides us with the contact information needed to notify everyone of the changes.
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Some events are unscheduled, especially our daytime activities. Those activities (typically lunch, shopping or museums) are self organized by our attendees on our private Discord server. Commuter registration provides full access to our Discord server, so you can participate in the planning and attendance of those ad’Hoc activities. It’s also a great place to introduce yourself to the group before the big weekend.
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Registration requires you to check a box indicating that you have reviewed our event policies. We trust you, but we want to make sure everyone else is on their best behavior
Our Guarantee
Now, you might be thinking: “Why do I have to pay $10 just to see the schedule? What if there’s nothing on the schedule that I wanna do? Do I lose my $10?” Absolutely not! If our schedule (once released) doesn’t work for you, then let us know (at paint.the.town.chi@gmail.com) and we’ll gladly issue a refund. It really is that simple.
Other Questions
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What about parking? Parking in the city, especially in River North, can be expensive. Usually, we encourage SpotHero or similar. Alternatively, folks can self-organize into car pools. Our Discord server is a great place to connect with others looking to save on parking.
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I’m not planning to stay the night, but need a place to change and do makeup. There’s likely folks in our group willing to provide temporary access to their hotel room. Again, Discord is the place to make such connections.
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I’m staying at the hotel, but not interested in the services of the photographer. Can I register at the commuter rate? For many in our community, an out of town trip (or even a staycation) is not viable for a multitude of reasons. The commuter rate is offered to make sure those individuals can participate in a gender diverse gathering such as Paint the Town. If you are in need of a hardship discount please contact us at paint.the.town.chi@gmail.com. It is very likely we can work something out for your particular situation.
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If the $10 doesn’t go to the photographer, where does it go? As indicated in item (2), we think of this money more as a deposit on attendance, than revenue for the organization. After the event, if an attendee wants this deposit back, we’ll gladly issue a refund, as long as the attendee was not a no show for any event they signed up for. Otherwise, Julie will keep it as a thank you for the hours and hours of time she has donated to organizing the weekend.