This year’s Lollapalooza music festival opened Thursday in a sunny, sold-out Grant Park with Lorde and hometown artist John Summit as the day-capping headliners and a capacity crowd of a reported 115,000 inside the fences — with everyone seeming to have a different favorite they were there to see.
South Loop residents Ashley Lahay and Max Wertz, both 21, arrived at the main entrance on Ida B. Wells Drive early, decked out in rhinestone stickers and glitter. It was their first time at Lollapalooza and they were attending all four days.
“We decided to go all out,” Lahay said.
“Go big or go home,” Wertz added.
Lahay and Wertz said they’re excited to see indie-pop singer-songwriter Audrey Hobert, Lorde and Finnish indie-pop duo Pearly Drops, who they had discovered just hours before the festival.
Lorde last headlined in 2017 in a performance cut short by a thunderstorm.
Siblings Makenzie and Brayden Sumner said they traveled from Kentucky to celebrate Makenzie Sumner’s birthday and graduation at the festival. The six-hour drive was “worth it,” she said.
Makenzie Sumner, 18, said she was looking forward to Asha Banks’ set on the T-Mobile stage, the English pop singer’s first music festival appearance in the United States. Brayden Sumner, 19, said he was planning to catch English heavy metal band Loathe, who he discovered last September.
“I fell in love with that band,” he said.
A first-time festivalgoer, Makenzie said she was excited but worried about the large crowds.
“I love concerts, so it shouldn’t be any different,” she said.
This year has seen Filipino musicians make it big at U.S. music festivals. In April, girl group BINI became the first Filipino act to perform at Coachella. Then on Thursday afternoon, SB19 became the first Filipino group to play at Lollapalooza when they took to the Allianz stage at 3:30 p.m.
The fanbase, known as A’tin, which means “ours” in Tagalog, came out to support the five-member group, which debuted in 2018.
Brenda Sanjuan, 53, waited by the Allianz stage for hours before SB19’s set. Under the hot sun, she kept cool using a handheld fan with images of the band members on it.
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She had traveled from San Francisco to see SB19, which she called a source of Filipino pride.
“I know they’re going to wow the crowd,” she said. “I’m really excited for people to hear them.”
Sanjuan said she traveled to Manila to see the band this spring. Last night, she went to see band member Josh Cullen throw the first pitch at a White Sox game.
But fans who weren’t able to make it to Grant Park still had options since Lollapalooza livestreams select performances on Disney+ and Hulu. Livestream watch parties popped up in Chicago and also in the Philippines. The country’s Department of Tourism announced it would host a free watch party in Manila, and the event fully sold out the Rizal Park Open Air Auditorium, despite the performance scheduled for 3:45 a.m. in the Philippines.
Fans waved Filipino flags in the air, cheering the group’s name loudly as they caught sight of the members before they even stepped on stage.
SB19’s set included their explosive, high-energy pop songs, bursting onto the stage clad in leather pants and jackets to perform songs such as their newest single “Lawless,” a song largely in English that they released the previous night. But they also slowed it down to show off their emotional chops with some ballads, including 2021’s “Mapa.”
Toward the end of the set, the group continued its collaborations with local sports teams, pulling Chicago Bulls mascot Benny the Bull onto the stage to dance in “Dungka!”
Earlier in the afternoon, Chris Burger, 24, stood by the Allianz stage as members of English rock band Bad Nerves tuned their instruments. Although it was Burger’s first Lollapalooza, it was his third time seeing Bad Nerves. Last time, he said, he even crowd-surfed.
“I love them,” he said. “They’re super high-energy shows.”
New this year is Lollapalooza Midway, where vendors will serve carnival fare including funnel cake, fried Oreos, corn dogs and more. This year also marks the first time that THC beverages will be available at the festival under a new partnership with THC beverage brand Señorita.
Over at Kidzapalooza, a dedicated family-friendly area of the festival, members of the School of Rock’s teen show team performed a set of cover songs.
Bassists Erin Soumar, 16, Langston White, 16, and Liam Calvert, 18, said it was their first time performing at the festival.
“It was awesome,” Soumar said. “I had fun with everyone.”
White said he even spotted a few of his friends rocking out in the crowd.
“It’s good bragging rights,” Calvert said. “I like telling people that I played at Lolla.”
Although Lorde’s set is expected to be dry, weather is a big question mark again this year, with the National Weather Service forecasting that showers will arrive late Friday and stick around the rest of the weekend. Cue the muddy mosh pits.
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) attended Thursday and said that readying for severe weather had been a big part of the city’s preparations this year with C3 Presents, the division of Live Nation that puts on Lollapalooza. Although C3 makes the call on weather response — up to and including evacuating the park — they do so in concert with the city’s reports.
“They decide, but based on what we tell them we’re seeing,” Hopkins said. Lightning storms and high winds will prompt an evacuation; rain showers mean shows will go on.
For the first time this year, one backstage microphone can interrupt and broadcast alerts to every speaker in the park simultaneously, including to all the speakers at the stages.
“They call it the ‘voice of God’ microphone,” he said. “We don’t expect to have to use it.”
Evacuation sites include the Grant Park underground garages and the city has been in conversation with hotels and businesses across Michigan Avenue to open their doors as needed. In 2017, one hotel had to replace all its carpeting after taking in muddy festgoers.
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Caribbean-soul artist Simon Grossmann spoke during a Thursday afternoon set about the impact of June’s earthquakes on Venezuela, his home country. He had just left for a performance in Puerto Rico when the earthquakes hit; a month later, the official death toll has surpassed 5,500.
“I was kind of feeling guilty that I was there and like not, first of all, not being in Venezuela to be able to do anything, but at the same time, kind of feeling like I couldn’t do anything,” Grossmann said.
Grossmann said Puerto Rican concertgoers ended up filling two vans with donations. Speaking to the Tribune afterward, he said he tried to coordinate donations with his Lollapalooza performance, but there was not enough time to make arrangements.
So, Grossmann said he raised awareness as an alternative.
“I feel like my role here is two things: to be able to spread the word and say what’s going on, and to be able to show that Venezuelans are people who have dreams,” he said.
Kate Dowden, 19, stood with her friends off to the side before Grant Park opened, having traveled to Lollapalooza from the Indianapolis area. Dowden, a repeat attendee, said Lollapalooza is “kind of a tradition,” so she knows what to expect.
What part of the festival is their favorite? Dowden said it’s the end of the day.
“Leaving is low-key the best part,” she said. “We’ll just be leaving and everyone is singing; there’s drummers and food.”
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