Lollapalooza 2026: What we saw and heard

Lollapalooza 2026 is now over at Grant Park. Here’s a summary of what we saw — and heard.

Day 1

This year’s Lollapalooza music festival opened 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. Read more here.

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Day 2

Lollapalooza hit its stride on the Chicago lakefront on Friday and the rain arrived too, with a murky swirl of clouds parking above Grant Park alongside the police helicopters and parade of airplanes towing advertising banners.

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Capping the evening, Day 2 mainstage headliners are Charli xcx on the T-Mobile (returning to Chicago on the heels of her famous “Brat” tour last year) and hometown band Smashing Pumpkins on the Bud Light (a set referred to by at least one young festivalgoer as Lollapalooza’s “parents’ night”).

Earlier in the day, the music schedule was in flux, with Paloma Morphy and mainstage draw Lil Uzi Vert dropping out, Slayyter swapping stages with Balu Brigada and other changes. Festivalgoers seemed to roll with the punches. Read more here.

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Day 3

The gates finally opened for Lollapalooza in Grant Park at 3 p.m. Saturday, hours after the scheduled start time, with some festivalgoers lined up at the entrance on Michigan Avenue in on-and-off rain showers to wait.

The festival sent an early alert that the gate would be delayed until 2 p.m. due to “current and overnight heavy rains,” then extended that to 3 p.m.

Unsurprisingly, the day’s music schedule took a hit. Most performances by acts slated to play earlier were canceled, with a handful moving to different stages. Read more here.

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Day 4

Lollapalooza hit its Day 4 homestretch on Sunday in Grant Park, with the gates opening on time after rains and flooding forced a late start on Saturday.

Closing headliners were Canadian singer-songwriter Tate McRae and the British indie rock band The xx.

With seas of mud everywhere, the skies remained stubbornly misty and cool through midafternoon, and crowds slow to arrive. The Los Angeles pop duo After pulled an audience early at the Airbnb stage but there were no lines and no waiting to get close to the barricades to catch New York hip hop group Whatmore as the openers on the Bud Light stage.

Regardless, by the final day, Sunday was officially sold out, with a daily capacity of 115,000 under the festival’s current contract with the city through 2032. Read more here.

• Photos: What we saw at Lollapalooza Day 4