BIC Durga Pujo 2026 at 828 South Wolcott

Bengalis In Chicago is listing Durga Pujo 2026 for Saturday and Sunday, October 24–25, at 828 South Wolcott Avenue in the Illinois Medical District. The homepage leads with those dates and an early-bird push. It does not print hours or named ticket tiers.

Eventbrite is the planning clock. The listing opens Saturday at 10:00 a.m. and closes Sunday at 7:00 p.m., and it is not free. Buy through the Eventbrite link on bengalisinchicago.com. Do not invent student or family labels from an API range the org did not name on its homepage. Email is bicgroup.net@gmail.com.

Eventbrite copy calls this the 19th year of the group's Durga Puja. BIC describes itself as a Bengali association built by students, aiming for a home away from home near downtown Chicago. That student-org DNA is why the hall feels closer to campus adda than to a suburban temple campus.

The same Eventbrite text treats the MM Thompson Room as its bamboo pandal: decoration as chandelier, YouTube dhaak as the stand-in drummer, a little snow sometimes, and farewell to Durga with the hope she comes back. That is the group's own voice. The room is a university-adjacent hall, not a Lemont hill temple.

A separate call-for-performance flyer on the org site asks for song, dance, drama, and recitation entries by October 16, 2026, at cultural@bengalisinchicago.com. Useful if your crew wants a stage slot. It still does not print ticket prices or day-by-day cultural grids.

The same Saturday is HTGC's Dussehra bazaar and fireworks in Lemont and Aurora Diwali at Metea Valley. You cannot do Wolcott and Lemont fireworks without a long drive at dusk. Pick the city puja if you want two days on the West Side without leaving the medical district. Sunday still works if Saturday is already promised to Lemont or Aurora.

Who this is for: Chicago Bengali families who already treat BIC as their October adda, and anyone who wants a ticketed in-city hall instead of a temple campus. Skip it if you needed a free civic Diwali. Aurora is the free 2 p.m. start.

Wolcott is west of the medical campus, not Devon. Drive or take the Pink Line and a last stretch. Parking is hospital-district parking, so give yourself time. Homepage countdown widgets that still flash odd day counts are leftover math. The October 24–25 line is the date.

Our take: Saturday if you can only come once. Sunday if Saturday is Lemont. Buy the early bird while the homepage still says it is open. Do not quote a dollar amount the org did not print.

When: October 24–25, 2026 (Eventbrite: 10 a.m.–7 p.m. window)
Where: 828 S Wolcott Ave, Chicago, IL 60612

Org page at bengalisinchicago.com. Tickets on Eventbrite.