Lollapalooza, the annual music festival that the city of Chicago’s Grant Park hosts annually arrived early last month, and went off with a middling avail. 

The festival rained for two days, while also vastly overselling tickets this year. The combination of these two circumstances made the experience a not so great one for the weekend festival.

Lollapalooza, a now-worldwide festival, started all the way back in 1991 as a farewell tour for the founder Perry Farrell’s band Jane’s Addiction. It boasted a lineup of Jane’s Addiction, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Living Colour, Nine Inch Nails, Ice-T, Butthole Surfers, and the Henry Rollins Band. An impressive feat for the time. Alas, Lollapalooza actually was not over, and the festival returned the next year, and then the year after, and then on. The festival started as a tour, and finally ended up in its home of Chicago, where the festival has called home for the past 18 years. 

Fast forward to 2023, and Lollapalooza was bigger than ever, boasting an interesting lineup with headliners including popular artists like Kendrick Lamar, Lana Del Rey, Tomorrow X Together, Billie Eilish, and The 1975. A far stretch from the first lineup, this year’s festival contained far more hip-hop and pop acts than the once rock-dominated festival. It has become more accessible music wise for the general public, and also the most popular across the Chicago festival circuit. 

Tickets for Lollapalooza sold out quicker than usual in 2023 due an increase in popular artis playing this year, and the relief that festival goers would most likely not get COVID after attending the festival due to the large crowd sizes. Music festivals are back, and here to stay.

Even though this year’s festival looked perfect on paper, in actuality, it was far from perfection. The festival was insanely crowded at all times due to organizers C3 Presents raising the park capacity by 15,000, and the weather circumstances, which were rather unfortunate: it rained for two days straight, causing the baseball fields within the park grounds to become a free-for-all mud pit whenever a performer brought on a large amount of energy. Additionally, the prices were quite expensive for what one gets to experience, being at around $450 for a four-day general admission ticket, and that doesn’t even include transportation, food, and the aftermarket prices once the festival eventually sold out. While each concert was fun in the moment, afterwards everybody was covered in mud, and Lord knows what else. 

The festival experience was not all doom and gloom though, as the performers stayed strong throughout the event, especially those who brought the energy; artists like Fred Again.., Destroy Lonely, and Kendrick Lamar were a few to hammer in this point. The music at Lolla was better than ever this year. Fred Again.. – playing hit after hit, hyping up the crowd – was a great discovery this year. Even though the audio at the T-Mobile stage was a little lower than it was supposed to be, the wait between shows was still a pleasant experience leading up to the headliner for that night, Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick played an average set of hit after hit, which was fine for a festival performance, but not at a level that would really please his most diehard fans, making Fred Again.. one of the standout acts for Friday. 

Coming into Saturday, though,  Lollapalooza was a whole other beast. Saturday at Lolla was expected to receive mild rainfall, which was harrowing for festival-goers, and ended up being a nightmare whenever one wanted to view a performance. 

In terms of performances, Alex G and The Garden had to be the highlights of the day compared to an artist who goes by Destroy Lonely. Lonely had the unfortunate time of playing right on top of a baseball field, which was just barely starting to dry as a result of the rain. Mud was hurled left and right throughout this concert, which was not ideal with the constant mosh pits the crowd just kept opening up. In the aftermath, most people left this show feeling disappointed and drenched in sludge, which was not helped by the subpar music and lack of musical variety being played during the performance.

Artists like Alex G were a much-needed breather after the chaos of a Destroy Lonely mud pit. He played a relaxed, laid-back set of indie rock tracks, supported by a crowd environment that seemed eager to listen to some soft rock and end the day on a more chill note. The soft energy of the last set was completely reversed when the band that goes by The Garden came on stage half an hour afterwards to close out night three of Lollapalooza. They brought a punk energy that was quite a refreshing experience. This was contrasted with Destroy Lonely’s “rockstar vibe” which felt like a more artificial imitation of hard, using a few rock elements with a primarily hip-hop set. Ending Lollapalooza with The Garden was a great sendoff for a quite horrid day, with how weather conditions practically ruined the festival’s first half.

Even though many parts of the festival were a little underwhelming there was one area where the festival didn’t disappoint, the food. Rain or shine Lollapalooza had some great food options this year, at an affordable price too. Some offerings being the amazing grilled cheese sandwich known as the Tenderizer from Cheesie’s Pub & Grub, along with a great variety of bao buns from Wow Bao. Both of the food options happened to be around the 10-15 dollar range as well which is a pretty decent price for festival food.

Lollapalooza 2023 was both fun and a little disappointing, with most of the unfortunate circumstances being out of the organizers’ hands, which is understandable, but does not excuse the overselling of tickets and overpricing, along with the horrible weather which plagued a few days. In the end, the music was enjoyable – for the most part – and so was the city of Chicago’s enthusiastic energy and great food. It would be recommended to go the 2024 iteration, but maybe just choose one day over an entire four-day experience, and make it memorable: do not overindulge too hard in the festival lifestyle.  

All being said, Chicago’s annual music festival was less a lollapalooza this year, and more an ordinary affair.