Early Bird Tickets: $95 Till Thursday, Jan 25th (then $125)
Get ready for Globalfest 2026 – the ultimate fair trade party and Chicago Fair Trade’s 20th Anniversary! 🎉
Here’s what’s in store this year:
🍹 Open bar with plentiful libations
🌮 Taco bar and tasty fusion appetizers
🎧 Tunes by DJ Jamie Hayes to keep the dance floor alive
🎁 Stellar silent auction where you can out-bid the competition to your heart’s content!
Changemaker Awards 2026
Every year at Globalfest, we present awards to an organization or person who is advancing fair trade in and around Chicago. Meet this year’s award winners!
Shelly Ruzicka is a labor rights warrior. In 2006, she joined Arise Chicago, a worker center supporting low-wage and immigrant workers, as an intern. Today, serving as the organization’s Communications and Finance Director, she elevates workers’ voices through powerful storytelling strategy and securing extensive national and international media coverage. Inspired by her family’s working-class Polish and Czech immigrant roots, Shelly, who formerly also served as Board Chair of Chicago Fair Trade, has dedicated her life’s work to championing dignity, fairness, and equity in the workplace.
Daniel André Regueira Santos is the founder and head distiller of Chicago Cane Cooperative, a worker-owned cooperative producing locally distilled rum using ethically sourced sugar. A first-generation Cuban-American, Daniel’s passion for rum grew from exploring his cultural roots. Recognizing the spirit’s complex and brutal history – fueling revolutions, shaping empires, and building economies on the labor of enslaved peoples – Daniel was inspired to found a worker-owned model that honors the cultural significance of rum while challenging its legacy of exploitation.
Shelly and Daniel’s work has been instrumental in driving worker-first, values-driven business practice in Chicago. We’re so excited to celebrate them with you!
What is Globalfest?
Globalfest is the ultimate gathering of Chicago’s fair trade community – a night of celebration to honor Chicago’s pivotal role in the movement to make trade fair for people and the planet.
We can’t wait to see you there to raise a glass, make some memories, and dance the night away! 🕺💃
