CHICAGO — Outdoor concerts, the Great America theme park in Gurnee and other open-air events around Chicago and the suburbs remained on hold midday Friday as haze from wildfire smoke from Canada and Minnesota stubbornly remained in the area for a second day.

Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor in Gurnee announced on its website that it was closed for the day, marking a second day in a row the 50-year-old amusement park was closed due to the poor air quality.

The Chicago Park District announced Friday morning that Chicago beaches and pools would also remain closed for a second day in a row, and that all day camps would be held indoors. The park district also said Osaka Garden and both the Garfield Park Conservatory and Lincoln Park Conservatory will remain closed for the day.

The Forest Preserve District of Will County announced it had canceled its Surf-N-Turf Concert scheduled for tonight at Monee Reservoir due to predicted hazardous air quality. It also canceled Friday’s Kickin’ It at the Iron Works program at Joliet Iron Works Historic Site. In Aurora, a concert by ’80s cover band Sixteen Candles has been canceled in RiverEdge Park.

However, as weather officials expect wildfire smoke to leave northern Illinois sometime Friday afternoon, organizers of evening outdoor events were holding their breath on cancellations.

Ravinia Festival in Highland Park confirmed on its website Friday afternoon that an 8 p.m. concert by Paul Simon was still a go, with the expectation the air would clear later in the day. Simon, 84, is slated to play two concerts in Ravinia’s newly renovated Hunter Pavilion in Highland Park on Friday and Saturday as part of his “Quiet Celebration” tour behind his 2023 album “Seven Psalms.” The tour also played last year at Symphony Center in Chicago.

Ravinia closed a Steans Institute concert of chamber music in its Bennett Gordon Hall to the public on Friday afternoon, opting instead to livestream the performance, and also canceled a Thursday night Mozart performance.

The Grant Park Music Festival canceled its usual open-to-the-public rehearsal on Friday but confirmed the evening’s concert in Millennium Park is still scheduled for 6:30 p.m. On the lakefront, an outdoor concert by Lil Wayne at Huntington Bank Pavilion on Northerly Island is still a go.

But the eerie haze that settled in over the city this week did wreak havoc on summer events.

On Thursday night, a Black Keys concert slated for outdoors on the Salt Shed Fairgrounds in the West Town neighborhood was called off not long before it had been scheduled to start, with the band posting on social media that it was following the advice of the city and had postponed the show in favor of two indoor shows at the Salt Shed Oct. 20-21. And the Millennium Park Summer Music Series, a free outdoor concert series held on select days throughout the summer, was also called off Thursday night.

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