With this year’s lineup now available, I have found myself reminiscing about early August 2017. Lollapalooza, a four-day music festival in Chicago, is undoubtedly one of the highlights of my life. Surrounded my closest friends and seeing some of my favorite artists LIVE at Grant Park was unforgettable.
At the beginning of the weekend, my friend, Alikah, and I were unsure what we were getting into. We got ready at my sister’s apartment, and she drove us to the festival. It was unreal to see the swarming crowds of all these people that came to enjoy good music together. Each and every person was a stranger, and I was sure that I would not see their face again. It was refreshing to, right off the bat, meet people from different states and parts of the country.
I just kept thinking about what drew us all to Grant Park that weekend, and it was music. It is powerful.
Our favorite songs band us together and bring us to that specific spot in that moment in history. It might be a silly thing, but it definitely made me think of the bigger picture. I mean how many people around the world feel the words of a song and resonate with the music that I also listen to?
Arriving early to hear a few of the lesser known artists was a great decision. Colony House, Saint JHN, Hippo Campus, The Japanese House, Aminȇ, $uicideboy$, Mura Masa, Jai Wolf, and 6lack. With all of these artists entertaining us throughout the day, we then moved onto the more well-known artists that performed later at night. Some of these artists were Machine Gun Kelly, Charli XCX, Majid Jordan, Joey Bada$$, Capital Cities, Lil Yachty, Banks, 21 Savage, Jon Bellion, Milky Chance, RUSS (!!!), Tove Lo, Porter Robinson, Migos, Glass Animals, Rae Sremmurd, Lil Uzi Vert (even though he got cut short due to severe thunderstorms), Tegan and Sara, Vance Joy, The Head and the Heart, Foster the People, Big Sean, Cage the Elephant, Wiz Khalifa, Alt-J, Lorde, The XX, Arcade Fire and of course Chance the Rapper.
It is a lot to take in, I know. That is exactly how we felt too. Like how were we going to see all these amazing artists in the limited time span we had?
Lolla strategically places their stages far enough apart to where you will not be distracted by the loud noise from other concerts. With that being said, the stages were all close enough to go from one concert to another without completely stressing out. Not to mention, there was free stuff being handed to us from companies and sponsors every time we walked through the main area.
Having never been to any music festival as large as this before, we were not sure what to expect. As it turns out, these few short days ended up being some of the best memories we shared together. Even though we were constantly dripping with sweat, some of it other people’s, it was worth it. Singing along to our favorite songs and experiencing the best music we have heard in person was an experience unlike any other and I can not wait for this year’s exciting experience at Lollapalooza.
All body photos by Paige Maffett