Lollapalooza—Chicago, August 6-8th, 2010

There is nothing more inspiring and meditative than listening to one of your favorite bands surrounded by the Chicago skyline in Grant Park, Chicago.

Lollapalooza, originally founded by musician and Jane’s Addiction singer, Perry Farrell, was formally a road show that toured America in the 90’s with bands like Nine Inch Nails, The Strokes, and The Smashing Pumpkins. Now you can find the music festival permanently set up in Chicago’s Grant Park every early August.

The sun sets over an evening at Lollapalooza 2010.

Starting on a Friday morning and lasting till Sunday night, you arrive at Grant Park (including the fields and streets between Columbus and Michigan Ave.), which has been opened up for, on-average, over 80,000 fans to see (if you can swing it) almost 200 alternative rock, pop and DJ sets.

Chromeo onstage at Lollapalooza 2010.

The festival’s website, Lollapalooza.com, probably gets most of its hits in the months before the festival as Lolla-heads flock to see if they have released their line-up. This year, in a bid to excite their followers, Lolla released the line-up, but only filled in the O’s in each of the artists’ names. Those who fancied a guess or could piece the sequence of letters together bought their tickets early for a $190.00. Those buying a little late spent $215.00, not a drastic difference. Instead of buying a three-day pass, you can also buy single-day tickets—which many Illinoisans take advantage of.

The full line-up, consisting of headliners Lady Gaga, Phoenix, Green Day and The Arcade Fire, definitely rivaled 2009 acts like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kings of Leon, and Pearl Jam. I wonder if they can out-do themselves next year.

Lady Gaga onstage at Lollapalooza...

...and crowd-surfing at Lolla with Semi Precious Weapons' frontman Justin Tranter.

Usually each day offers between 40 and 50 sets, of all different music genres. You can start your day at 11:30 at Perry’s Stage with a bit of dancing and go to as many shows as you can pull-off till your headliner-of-choice at 8 p.m. Days end at 10 p.m. and if that is too early you can always head to an after-show…or there is always Boys Town, the gay-friendliest part of Chicago.

Boys Town is situated within the town of Lakeview in Chicago, and its main strip of gay bars is located on North Halstead. To get there, take the Red, Brown or Purple line on the L to Belmont, or the red line to Addison. Boys Town isn’t just bars, so if you want to take a break from music for the day, the area boasts cute boutiques, theater, and diverse restaurants.

Lollapalooza is probably as diverse as you expect a music festival to be: hippies, yippies/prepsters, bangers, hipsters, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, the boring (those hanging out in the back of the crowd just standing there), the just plain weird, Little Monsters, etc. But, I definitely saw a larger gay scene this year in comparison to last, and I attribute this to Lady Gaga. However, I found the GLBT community at every show I went to, demonstrating how music is truly universal.

If you were as lucky as I was to stay downtown (Wabash and Superior), you only had to hop on the L at the Chicago stop and get off at Jackson to walk east to the park. For those outside The Loop, taxis in Chicago are relatively inexpensive, and the L system is a cheap way to get to the event. I just hope you don’t have to transfer—and I only say that because who likes to transfer?

The summer heat can be taxing, so to keep partiers and music-lovers cool and fist-pumping all day, Lollapalooza has air-conditioned buses to sit in, a legion of water-squirting staff members keeping moshers cool, and for sustenance: Chow-Town. There are several Chow-Towns located within Grant Park (designated North and South). Their bars offer Bud Light and Budweiser Beers, one of the many sponsors of the event, wine sports bottles by Estancia Vineyards, and Sweet Leaf Tea, amongst other commonplace beverages (I mean you, H2O!).

Chowtime in Chow-Town!!!!

Chow-Town vendors consist of local Chicago eateries like Kuma’s Corner with their rockin’ burgers, Maui Wowi smoothies, Goose Island “beer fed” BBQ Pulled-pork sandwiches, and AMAZING (but filling) truffle fries from Rockit Bar and Grill.

Over the course of the weekend, if there happens to be a lull in your schedule, Lolla has other fun events to keep you busy. You can head over to the F.Y.E. autograph booth and meet artists featured at the festival or head to the Sony bloggie Borrow Bar and rent an HD camera to take pictures and videos you can post online later in the day.

Smile!!!

Lollapalooza has trusty iPhone and Droid applications to help keep audience members’ schedules in check; these apps also include helpful maps. The Lollapalooza website offers hotel recommendations, after-party invites and locations, and also travel packages. Luckily, Chicago has O’Hare International and Midway Airports, so there are plenty of flights to choose from. You can take the L, Bus or Metra Trains from the airports into the city if you find yourself on a budget.

The weekend is non-stop action. Ears full of music, bellies full of food, and fields filled with some of the happiest people on earth (well, at least for the weekend). It’s been my experience that you should get to Chicago the day beforehand and take another one day after before leaving. Some people may or may not have hangovers after a weekend like this, so it might be helpful to rest up before heading back to the “real world.”

Wanna prep for 2011's Lollapalooza? The dates are already set for August 5-7. Get more deets at Lollapalooza.com. And get more good gay Chicago travel info at TripOut's Chicago Destination Guide.