The last day of Lollapalooza Sunday had sun, stubbornly high temps and humidity and a few schedule changes in a musical lineup concluding with singer Melanie Martinez, DJ Ben Böhmer, electronic music duo Zeds Dead and the rock band Blink-182.
The day’s lineup was heavy on punk and alternative tunes, harking back to Lollapalooza’s roots in the ’90s, with Pierce the Veil preceding Blink-182 on the T-Mobile mainstage and a day-opening set on the Bacardi stage by Chicago alternative band Scarlet Demore.
A small but devoted crowd came for the band and to secure a spot for later acts like Post Sex Nachos.
“(Expletive) Chicago forever!” lead singer Cat Ayala screamed as they started their set. They played their better-known tunes “Wendy’s a Pisces” and “Spiked Seltzer” to enthusiastic cheers, debuted a new song and concluded with a cover of “Break Stuff” by Limp Bizkit.
Ron Brown, 60, from suburban La Grange, said he first heard Scarlet Demore when they opened for Starcrawler at Schubas in 2022.
“They were just so personable, and the music was fantastic — a little punkish, rock vibe,” Brown said. “I love the fact that they’re a local band, too.”
Brown said he has attended Lollapalooza for the past 11 years, and this year came with his son. He said it’s been a great place to discover new music over the years.
“Back in 2013, Twenty One Pilots was just starting — on this stage,” Brown said, pointing to the Bacardi stage behind him. “Crazy performance. I like getting to know bands before they become popular.”
Fans sweated it out in black band T-shirts as they crowded around the T-Mobile stage in the afternoon.
Eric Wiser, 49, from Arlington Heights, came with his 13-year old daughter who was most excited to see Pierce the Veil and the Japanese metalcore band Hanabie. They wore Johnny Cash and Pierce the Veil T-shirts, respectively, and planned to stay near the stage.
“I was at Lollapalooza in 1992, so I’m not familiar with any of these (groups),” Wiser laughed. “She’s excited. I’m not.”
Slow Pulp was next up. The indie pop group originated in Madison, Wisconsin, but now calls Chicago home. This was their first time performing at Lollapalooza.
Besa Mixha, 20, of Rockford, arrived just in time for their set, having been introduced to their music by her cousin. The Rockford native said this was her second Lollapalooza, and reminisced about Billie Eilish’s 2023 performance. She said she appreciates Lollapalooza over other Chicago-area music festivals.
“I went to Summer Smash, and I didn’t really like it,” Mixha said of the hip hop-focused festival at SeatGeek Stadium. “It’s very crowded, bunch of guys, no respect. Lollapalooza has a bunch of different genres, which is nice.”
Safety in Grant Park
For some — including parents sending off their teenage children for four days — the question hanging over any big music festival is safety. As Lollapalooza 2024 winds down, an early account suggests Lolla had a pretty good year.
Though the city waits to report figures for arrests and ambulance transports until after the festival has concluded, last year those numbers were the lowest since 2019 — and last year was the first summer with Lollapalooza’s new larger daily capacity of 115,000. (Capacity for 2024 remains 115,000, with all four days sold out, according to C3 Presents.)
The report is still coming this year, said Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, but he expects those numbers to be lower yet again. Hopkins is chair of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee and spoke to the Tribune at Lollapalooza Sunday.
“Much of what I see is anecdotal,” he said, but overall he’s optimistic.
For safety, the city works alongside the festival’s own security teams but the Chicago Police Department “remains the agency in charge,” Hopkins said. “They’re inside the fences, they’re outside, and they’re the ones who make arrests if arrests need to be made.”
Police also gear up for the festival’s close every day.
“When everyone exits at once, that’s when it can get a little intense,” he said. “You have everyone flooding the streets, they’ve been here all day, maybe some of them have been drinking.”
Incidents like fence-jumping, seemingly endemic in years past, are way down, Hopkins said. He said police have gotten better at predicting kinds of incidents and deterring them.
Lollapalooza itself touts an emphasis on safety. “The safety and well-being of our fans, artists, guests and staff is paramount,” the festival says on its website, and roving teams such as SafeFest work alongside medical crews stationed around the park. The nonprofit This Must Be the Place has been providing naloxone, an opioid reversal medicine used for overdoses.
But Hopkins also acknowledged that security figures will be incomplete.
Cellphone theft is one of the biggest problems at Lollapalooza, he said, including by sophisticated phone theft rings. As the Tribune has reported, thieves may be after account numbers and other data as much as the phones themselves.
Festgoers who lose their phones first should check in with lost and found, but are otherwise told to report phone thefts at police stations outside the festival. Hopkins said that likely few do. “They probably just buy a new phone and move on.”
Political messaging
Near Buckingham Fountain, several political groups were set up with games and surveys for festgoers. Dream.org — a nonprofit focused on mass incarceration — offered information about prison reform, giving out temporary tattoos to anyone who took a survey.
Cajsa Weber has been volunteering with Chicago Votes — a nonpartisan voter engagement group — for the past four years, and says they are invested in mobilizing young people to participate in the voting process. They host a table every year at Lollapalooza, register voters at Cook County Jail, create voter guides and lobby for voting-related legislation at the state level.
At Lollapalooza, they were set up to register voters and had a spin-the-wheel game with politics and pop culture trivia.
“There’s a traditionally very boring stigma when it comes to politics,” Weber said. “So we like to have that crossover of cultural and creative with younger folks so that they can understand that it is important to get involved, it impacts you, but it doesn’t always have to be boring.”
Weber said they’ve seen a lot of enthusiasm this year over the coming election, particularly as pop culture and celebrity references have been central to this year’s presidential campaigns.
“That’s made it a lot easier to have conversations with younger folks,” Weber said.
Swapping stages
Singer and rapper Dominic Fike, slated for later Sunday on the T-Mobile stage, dropped out due to health reasons, it was announced Wednesday. Teddy Swims moved up from the smaller Tito’s stage, with Last Dinner Party shifting into their slot.
That kind of Tetris puzzle is part of the decision-making, said Huston Powell, a promoter for C3 Presents that puts on Lollapalooza, in response to a Tribune question. “Both Last Dinner and Teddy have grown significantly since we booked them and while we never like cancellations, when we have them, we use the opportunity to relocate bands.”
In the early evening, Swims took the stage in a black fedora and Chicago Bulls jersey emblazoned with “Swims 69” on the back.
“His voice is very powerful,” Alaina Boone, 20, said. “I’m a very big vocal person.” Boone came to Lollapalooza for the first time this year with her cousin. Though Boone is the Teddy Swims fan, both were excited for some of Sunday’s evening acts, like Conan Gray and Melanie Martinez.
Swims’ music blends genres like soul and R&B. He got his start on YouTube, where his covers ranging from Shania Twain to Lewis Capaldi went viral.
On Sunday, Swims opened with “Goodbye’s Been Good to You” from his 2023 album “I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1)” and later played songs like “Hammer to the Heart” from his 2024 release, “I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1.5).”
“It’s about how much I love you, you cuties,” Swims said to a packed crowd before playing his well-known tune “All That Really Matters.”
