Although we mostly discuss the law in our blog, here at Holwell Law Group, LLC we also like to take a step back and enjoy all the different festivals, parades, and other events happening right here in Chicago. This week, Chicago kicks off one of its largest festivals of the summer: Lollapalooza. Lollapalooza is a four-day music festival that is held in Grant Park every year. This year's festival includes over 170 bands, several food and beverage vendors, an art market, and plenty of swag. It starts this Thursday, August 3^rd with experimental, progressive rock band Muse to headline, and ends on Sunday August 6^th with indie rockers Arcade Fire to close it out. If rock and roll isn't your style, never fear; there will be plenty of rappers, djs, and electronica bands in attendance this year, including Chicago's own Grammy Award Winner for Best New Artist, Chance the Rapper. I've attended Lollapalooza in Chicago every year since 2014, and will be attending Friday and Saturday of this year.

Prior to finding a home in Chicago in 2005, Lollapalooza was a traveling music festival that toured all over the country. Perry Farrell (lead singer of 90's Alternative Rock band Jane's Addiction) founded the touring music festival in 1991 as a “farewell” tour for his band. Lollapalooza continued in the years to follow with some success until 1997, but after that Lollapalooza sadly took a break. It didn't start back up again until 2003, but Lollapalooza continued to be unsuccessful as a traveling music festival. After 2003, Lollapalooza ceased to exist as a traveling US music festival and the 2004 tour was cancelled in its entirety. However, that failure turned into great success in 2005, when Lollapalooza found its home in the city of Chicago as a local, weekend music festival. Since then Lollapalooza has expanded from two days, to three days and, beginning last year, to four days.  Although the US Lollapalooza music festival continues to be a one-weekend music festival based here in Chicago, the brand has expanded all over the world and now holds weekend shows in Chile, Brazil, Germany, and France.

I attended my first Lollapalooza in 2003 in my home town, Detroit, Michigan, back when it was still a traveling music festival. The lineup included Jane's Addiction, Audioslave, Queens of the Stone Age, Jurassic 5, The Donnas, Rooney, my personal favorite band, Incubus, and more. At that time, Lollapalooza was on much smaller scale and included mostly alternative rock bands. By the time I went to my 2^nd Lollapalooza in 2014 here in Chicago, the festival had taken on a whole new, diverse identity. At that time I was able to see folk rockers Johnnyswim, heavy metal/punk rock group AFI, pop rockers The Kooks, and rapper Eminem (with a special guest appearance by Rihanna) all in one day. I have gone to at least one day of Lollapalooza every year since then and attended all four days last year.

If you are a true music lover who can appreciate all genres, or just really want to experience Lollapalooza for yourself, tickets are never really sold out! You can find tickets at the Lollapalooza Verified Resale Ticket Exchange at the following link: https://www.lollapalooza.com/tickets/ If that does not work for you, try StubHub! As a general warning, not all websites claiming to have Lollapalooza tickets will be legitimate, so be careful when ordering tickets, as the festival is technically sold out. If you are going to purchase a resale ticket, make sure you purchase your resale ticket from a verified seller. Your safest bet is to get your tickets from the Lollapalooza website, at the Verified Resale Ticket Exchange.

Throughout the week, I'll be posting helpful information to get you through the weekend, such as my Lollapalooza Dos and Don'ts, weather updates, and some of my personal picks to check out from the undercard. Keep checking back for more info and enjoy the festival!