We’re still recovering from the three days of sensory overload that were Lollapalooza 2011, and everything’s settled into a bit of a blur. Fortunately for us, we teamed up with GUESS to present a living photo mosaic of the festival — the perfect way to look back and remember exactly what went down. Check out a gallery of some of some of our favorite user-submitted images and then click through to visit GUESS on Facebook and see the entire collection. Plus, if you have photos of your own from Lollapalooza, you can still submit them to win cool prizes, including merch from the artists that performed this year in Chicago.
Lollapalooza celebrated its 20th anniversary over the weekend, turning Chicago’s Grant Park into a musical mecca that saw roughly 100,000 people gather each day in extreme heat and, at least on Sunday evening, torrential rain. In keeping with founder Perry Farrell’s original vision, the festival lineup was thrillingly diverse, featuring everything from hip-hop to dance to stadium rock. Highlights included a blistering set from Muse, a storm-defying performance by the irrepressible Foo Fighters, and a number of the non-headliners we knew you would love, from Tinie Tempah to Fitz & the Tantrums.
Our favorite fresh act to these shores was easily Australia’s Boy & Bear, the antipodean answer to Mumford & Sons, while the most memorable moment came from the full-on chaos of LA-via-Mexico’s Le Butcherettes — a band that channels Karen O via the Kills, only with a lot more screaming and fake blood, and in this case, onstage vomiting with its own theme song. The only real disappointment came from a bizarre set by a spiked and studded Cee-Lo that opened with a Danzig cover and featured numerous Girl Talk-esque breaks for snippets of songs by Guns N’ Roses, Led Zeppelin, and Journey. Check out our photo gallery from the fest featuring all those artists and more, including Lykke Li, the Naked and Famous, and Ellie Goulding.
What started out two decades ago as a makeshift traveling musical circus has now become one of Chicago’s biggest annual events. This year’s Lollapalooza includes performances from Muse, Foo Fighters, Kid Cudi, Cee-Lo Green, Bright Eyes, Lykke Li, Crystal Castles, and dozens more — and it also marks your chance to win a VIP trip for two to attend the fest.
We’ve partnered with GUESS to send one winner and a guest out to Chicago’s Grant Park to spend three days basking in music and sunshine, with airfare, accommodation, and VIP festival passes all included. The winners will also attend an exclusive afterparty presented by Flavorpill and GUESS, featuring Tinie Tempah and Young the Giant.
It’s been 20 years since Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell started Lollapalooza as a traveling musical circus, featuring some of the brightest names in alternative music, and two decades later, he’s still steering the ship. Since 2005, the fest has settled down in its permanent home at Chicago’s Grant Park, where it continues to present some of the biggest acts in modern music alongside the rising stars of tomorrow. This year’s event takes place from August 5-7, with marquee bands including Muse, Foo Fighters, and Coldplay; but there are dozens of lesser-known artists worth catching, too. In the spirit of looking ahead, we’ve selected ten non-headliners from the 2011 lineup that you should check out, whether you make it to Chicago or not.
1. Arcade Fire has a new video directed by Spike Jonze. Says Win Butler: “We shot it in Austin and a lot of kids are in the film and it was great just hanging out with these 15-year-olds for a week and writing down all the funny things they said. It was cool to revert to being a 15-year-old for a little while.” [via P4K]
2. The Academy has announced the 15 movies on its short list for best documentary. Among the flicks that made the cut: Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop and Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for Superman. [via LAT]
3. The 1.52-acre Malibu estate where Evan Rachel Wood’s True Blood character Sophie-Anne lives has hit the market for $35 million. [via THR]
4. This year Lollapalooza will expand to Santiago, Chile. Perry Farrell says the lineup will include Chilean bands, and that they plan to “bring some of those artists out to Chicago for a musical foreign exchange.” [via NYT]
5. Thanks to Freedom, Jonathan Franzen is among those in the running for this year’s Bad Sex in Literature Award. [via Telegraph]
Throwing a major music festival — especially during times like these — is a risky proposition. With high-profile ventures like All Points West tanking after only two years, we’re always worrying that our favorite event or tour won’t be back for another summer. So, now that most of the year’s biggest festivals have come and gone, we’re taking a look at how a handful of standbys fared in 2010 to predict whether we should start saving cash for 2011 tickets or get to work planning their funeral. Spoiler alert: In most cases, the prospects are less bleak than you’d expect.
Lady Gaga went semi-naked crowd surfing during Semi Precious Weapons’ set at Lollapalooza over the weekend. She also allegedly had a bit a of a look at me now moment during her headlining performance on Friday night, remembering the first time she played the festival three years ago: “They told you you weren’t thin enough, pretty enough. They told you your BMI Stage show was a train wreck. You remember that you were born a superstar! You were born that way!”
Jetsetter wants to take you to Lollapalooza! Summer’s here and it’s time to jet! We can’t wait to head out on vacation, and Jetsetter is helping us out by offering members-only pricing on the world’s best hotels and vacations.
Besides all the insider info and access, right now Jetsetter is also hooking you up with the chance to see artists from Lady Gaga to Arcade Fire at this year’s Lollapalooza.
Your trip includes two VIP tix to Lollapalooza, round-trip airfare, a three-night stay at The James hotel in Chicago, and rockstar treatment at the fest (we’re talking golf cart shuttles, spa treatments backstage, Lolla Lounges, free food and drink – even air conditioning).
The Lollapalooza 2010 line up will be officially announced on April 6th, but in the meantime, festival organizers have taken inspiration from Wheel of Fortune and are revealing bits and pieces of info one letter at a time. So far “I”, “O”, and “R”, to be precise. We think we’ve come up with a pretty good idea of which larger artists will be dropping by Grant Park come August 6th. Leave a comment if you can figure out some of the empty spots that we missed, or uf you’re an insider who knows that we’ve gotten something wrong.
Total bedlam with a good soundtrack, that’s Lollapalooza. The last time I was in Chicago’s Grant Park with this many people — estimates show 200,000 bought tickets — we’d all just voted out a malevolent Washington administration that was past its expiration date. This time the masses and I were there to see as many different bands as humanly possible during a three-day free-for-all. People may not have been crying tears of joy, but spirits were definitely high. It would be nice to think that the world is a gentler place now than it was last November, but it’s not exactly true. Instead, the Midwest’s main music festival just seemed to prove that we’re pretty good at ignoring hard times. As Perry Farrell himself said, Lollapalooza is recession proof. Read More »
