The second day of Lollapalooza opened in Grant Park on the Chicago lakefront for a Friday headlined by Kendrick Lamar and The 1975, and with the expectations of another busy and bustling afternoon.
Daily capacity inside the fences is 115,000 for 2023, up from 100,000 in previous years.
By 11:15 a.m., Lamar fans had already staked out the barricade of the T-Mobile mainstage. Davia Walker, 20, and Alexis White, 18, friends from Indianapolis, were among the first. The first-time Lolla attendees said they planned to stay in place all day to keep their spot — and had done the same for Billie Eilish Thursday. They were crushed against the barricade at the start of Eilish’s set, White said, but enjoyed the show enough to risk a second.
”Waiting between sets for an hour makes it brutal,” White said. “But once someone starts performing, it’s not that bad.”
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For the first time at Lollapalooza, the nonprofit This Must Be The Place is handing out kits of a naloxone nasal spray, an opioid reversal medicine.
Concertgoers who visit their booth at Buckingham Fountain can pick up free kits and learn about the dangers of Fentanyl, what overdose symptoms to look for and how to administer the spray. By late afternoon of Day 1, almost 900 kits had been passed out, said Ingela Travers-Hayward, co-founder of This Must Be The Place. She estimates they’ll give out almost 5,000 by the festival’s close.
“Our main goal is not even for someone to necessarily have to use it on-site, but for people to be able to take it back into their own communities, and tell them it’s really safe to carry naloxone on you,” she said. “Carrying this is a symbol that you care about someone else.”
The nonprofit, which was founded last year in Columbus, Ohio, has also been at festivals such as Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Burning Man and Governors Ball.
“The nationwide fentanyl overdose crisis is affecting many different aspects of our communities, and while it’s not unique to festivals we see this proactive measure as an important opportunity to educate and arm a large group of like-minded people with information and tools that can save lives,” C3 Presents, which puts on Lollapalooza, said in a statement.
Chicagoan Brianna Buenrostro, 26, stopped by the tent midday Friday to pick up kits with two friends. The group wanted to have them on hand in case someone in the crowd starts exhibiting signs of an overdose, Buenrostro said. This Must Be the Place staff briefly trained them on what to look out for. ”Hopefully, we don’t have to use these ever,” Buenrostro said. “This is just kind of a safety net.”
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For Luca and Enrique Pasion, 20-year-old twins from Tampa, Florida, the key to surviving crowds is befriending other fans. They swapped snacks, water, electrolyte packets and makeshift fans with those around them at Thursday’s NewJeans set. Friday, they made friends with Lara Bektas and Elise McFarland while waiting at the Tito’s stage for beabadoobee’s set.
They were all surprised by how densely packed the audience was at Newjeans’ performance. ”When we got there, already there was a crowd forming and we were kind of scared,” Bektas said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that before.”
By the time the show started, people next to Bektas had started taking their clothes off to fight the heat, and she watched someone throw up and cover the stain with mulch. Luca Pasion said she had to ask the girl behind her to hold onto her waist so she wouldn’t be trampled when the music started.
To be sure, crowd surge — when the pressure of crowding can cause asphyxia — is a serious concern at large music festivals. Ten fans died in a surge at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival concert in Houston in 2021. An overcrowding tragedy last October in Seoul, South Korea, killed 159 people, most of them young Halloween revelers.
Last summer, Lollapalooza music sets were occasionally stopped until fans stepped back and made room. A statement from C3 Presents said in part that “Lollapalooza views safety of its fans, artists, and staff as the highest priority. Lollapalooza has trained personnel on each stage to watch for any issues in a crowd and are enabled to take action immediately should the need arise, with or without the artists permission or participation. Artists and/or their staff are briefed before every performance and show pause and stop procedures are rehearsed at every stage every single morning.”
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Lollapalooza isn’t just Chicago’s biggest music festival — it’s the city’s biggest runway. Fans and artists alike plan for weeks in advance to bring out their fiercest looks, working creatively around (or blithely defying) strict bag rules, long walking days and unrelenting heat. Following the endless fashion cycle that sends today’s teens into thrift stores, loose knitwear, fishnets, activewear sets and bralette-cargo pants pairings have been common sights at this week’s festival grounds.
The skintight neon mainstays of rave fashion have inevitably crept into Lolla looks for years, but 2023 is also very much the summer of DIY-themed ensembles, as many Chicagoans roll straight from “Barbenheimer” outfits to Lolla wardrobes. Recently, TikTok has exploded with videos of people sewing neckties into teeny tank tops, pairing activewear with vintage lingerie and raiding partners’ closets for oversized jerseys.
Those on a lunchtime meander through Chow Town perked up when Skizzy Mars’ set blasted out from the T-Mobile stage. Mars’ up-tempo vocals nearly drowned out the beginning of Blanke’s set on the nearby Perry’s stage as Mars roared his way through the DJ Vice 2016 track “Steady 1234,” on which he was featured. But the midday crowd really went wild when Mars played “Say Something,” a buzzy heartbreak anthem, for the very first time live. The track was released on streaming platforms Friday morning.
Lamar’s set Friday night is anticipated to be one of the festival’s most attended. Lamar was last in Chicago on his Big Steppers Tour at the United Center in August 2022. Headliners the rest of the weekend include Tomorrow X Together and Odesza Saturday and Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lana Del Rey closing the festival Sunday.
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This story is updating.
