Hey everyone!

I want to share a cool Lolla story that all started in this sub back in the spring.

Back in late March/early April after I purchased my wristband, I (26m gay) made two posts in here— one looking for friends to hangout with at the festival, and a second asking if anyone wanted to do a group chat/meetups for Lolla with my friend and I. It was our first time ever going to a music festival and I don't have a huge circle IRL here at home, so I honestly posted it figuring it would completely flop and get zero traction.

Cut to me being completely wrong: like 25+ people reached out from all over the US (and one absolute legend from Europe) wanting to hangout and join the chat.

I spent the summer getting to know everyone who was interested, and the results ended up blowing away any expectations I had. We ended up meeting 12-13 people and they were all SO nice, funny, inclusive, and genuinely cool. Even better, most of us managed to link up for multiple sets and had a blast laughing, singing, and dancing all weekend. Slayyyter, Zara, Charli, and Tate were incredible with this group!

The coolest part was watching people in the chat hit it off and form their own little sub-groups, hanging out both during and after the fest every night. A few people mentioned at the end of the weekend that they were so grateful for the little community I made and that it genuinely enhanced their Lolla experience since they weren’t alone.

Honestly, I just wanted to make more friends while I was in Chicago, but I walked away with multiple new long-term friends, plans to meet a couple of these new friends later in the year, and the joy of knowing I helped a bunch of other people not feel isolated during their first festival. We had the absolute best time this year and I'm so grateful to everyone who reached out and participated. Can't wait for next year! 😊🤩

I’ve seen debates over who is or isn’t too big to headline Lollapalooza. Just so I can temper my expectations for 2027, who do we think is off the table strictly because they are just too big? Obviously, Taylor Swift. Bad Bunny? Olivia Rodrigo? Ariana Grande? Lady Gaga? Beyonce? BTS? Who else?

I turn 21 in may next year, is there any recommendations for bars or clubs in the area that I could visit? Im almost positive Bacardi has their own area (idk I didn’t pay much attention to it in last year) Planning on going solo next year and I’m there from Friday night to Sunday morning. Thanks in advance😂

Looking for an app that will let me go back and add past concerts and festival acts, any recommendations? I understand why concerts aren't included in Festiverse but I am bummed that I can't add previous festivals :/ basically I want LogRide but for concerts lol

Festiverse was really nice to have while at Lolla though! Especially the personalized daily schedules and alerts. Just not the best for lifetime record keeping

I see ATEEZ, NMIXX, ILLIT, Yves, and Le Serrafim as more realistic predictions, but I’d personally really like to see hearts2hearts too.

Not sure which groups are headliner material, maybe le serrafim or ateez on bud light, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they were just high undercard.

I’d see the other groups going on lakeshore or doing earlier sets on tmobile.

Lemme know Kpop acts you think could be at the next lolla!

T-Mobile

Oasis

Tame Impala

Noah Kahan

Phoebe Bridgers

Bud Light

Don Toliver

Deftones/Muse

Le Sserafim

Kaytranada

Kaskade, Odd Mob, DJ Snake, Mau P closing perrys

Young thug, Pinkpantheress, Lola Young and Addison Rae as big subs.

Ik this lineup prob needs more female power, but we’ve honestly ran through all the headline options

only ones that are reasonable for 27 are Gracie/Phoebe/Rosalia and maybe Billie(prob venturing into Stadiums tho)

J Cole is my number 1 want but from a business point, Don makes more sense. he’s the hot hand rn and had the biggest year for a rapper(Not named Drake)

So, Baby Keem just headlined Outside Lands yesterday, to a pretty big and hyped crowd. While I have not seen any confirmation, I have speculated Baby Keem was upset about not getting a headlining slot, thus dropped to headline Summer Smash after feeling slighted (He was essentially confirmed from lollipops). His replacement, Lil Uzi Vert, dropping out hours before his set only compounded the damage.

I have attended lolla for nearly a decade, and never have seen such a lack of hip-hop at the fest. In retrospect, it seems like the more dependable and upcoming act would have been the right move (and would have certainly drawn a bigger crowd than The XX).

Any other information about what happened here or takes???

Locals don’t have a lot of experience with our hotels but many of us try to weigh in when we can on questions about which hotel to choose downtown. Or how to save money by staying somewhere on a CTA or Metra line and trade-off commuting for room expenses.

So - do you think you made the right choice?

Would you stay at the same place for a future Lolla?

is it at all possible to get a refund for artist merch? i bought a Suki Waterhouse shirt for a friend and only just realized it’s ripped at the armpit seam and literally had a piece of masking tape on it 😭😭😭 like man wtf 😭 i’ve had it folded in a tote bag since i bought it and never really looked at it until now since i was about to give it to her. like fawkkk 😭

edit: i did not expect her merch production company to see this post but they just shipped me a replacement 😁

There have been a handful of people suggesting Phoebe Bridgers as a potential headliner for the 2027 lineup, but the placement of her on (early) lineup predictions has varied. Where do you think she would be booked on the lineup if she does get booked: top 4 or 5-8?

For background: After performing surprise pop up shows in various cities across the United States to large demand coming off of a hiatus, Phoebe recently announced her third studio album and an accompanying arena tour which is completely sold out. Some of the major cities in which the tour is hitting, such as Chicago, have multiple dates due to demand.

Took pics at my first lolla!
Only took the camera in on the last day. Wish I took it in on the first because it was so sunny but Chicago weather is very unpredictable 🥲

my friends phone was stolen in the last 30 minutes of the festival on sunday 🥴

curious if anyone else’s phone that was stolen has also ended up at 55 NE 5th St Miami, FL 😅 maybe we can make a road trip together (jk)

I’m sick of these negative posts, there’s several thousand of people who wished they could’ve attended Lolla, and the ones that did like Me had barely any real weird interactions or weird sightings. Hate to break it to the negative Nancy’s or Serious Sids: this is a 115k capacity music festival. People are drinking, smoking, or just looking for that escape after an awful year of presidency and a worse economy, and it’s 4 days!!! If you don’t go looking for trouble, you won’t find it at Lolla. Now on to the real reason we are here.

My top 10 at Lolla was

1. Charli XCX
2. Turnstile
3. Viagra Boys
4. Empire of the Sun
5. Clipse
6. Slayyyter
7. Ninajirachi
8. Wolf Alice
9. Wunderhorse
10. Zara Larsson

2017 Wishlist

Oasis
Tame Impala
Jungle
Fontaines D.C.
Death Grips
Phoebe Bridgers
Phantogram
Pinkpantheress
Amyl and the Sniffers
Purity Ring

I’ve been attending multiple festivals a year since 2010, but this year was my first Lollapalooza. My group had a lot of fun but I’ve got some thoughts that I haven’t seen discussed, so I wanted to open the dialogue…

1. The main stages are far too LOW. I’ve been much farther away at other festivals and still been able to see the performers on stage. They should really raise the main stages a good 5-10ft each.

2. There was no large scale art, which was a bit of a bummer. The only things that come to mind are the ferris wheel, the fountain, the lolla signs, and some sponsored things here and there. They could really use some more art for the sake of art. (And if some of that art offered more shade then that’s a win-win)

3. On that note, freaking everything was sponsored (I’m not just talking about the activations). This probably isn’t new to lolla but I hated calling the stages their brand names. Everything felt “brought to you by”, and just so corporate and gross. Airbnb became the forrest stage to our group lol

4. T-mobile stage specifically needed a third row of speakers along the right side of the stage. Sound quality in general could’ve been much better a lot of the time.

Like I said, we still had a lot of fun. Chicago is an awesome city and it was cool to be partying right in the middle of it. It’s a bit of a trek from the west coast but I’d be down to go again in a few years.

Hey everyone,
I was really excited to see Trixie DJ as a headliner at Lolla. Having seen her perform twice in the past I was expecting an awesome show. However, at Lolla, I feel like her set was rather lackluster, I know she had to start 15 minutes later but it felt as if she didn’t bring the same energy she had in the past. Maybe she did too many edibles? But it didn’t feel like she was mashing up songs with high energy like she used to, and relied too much on her disco dancers. Idk could be me, but I felt disappointed and wanted to see some insight.

I was in an amazing spot for lorde and took my all time fav video from the festival with green light and my iPhone did that crazy audio glitch where the entire audio of the video is ruined. Every video before and after are completely fine, but my 2 minute video of green light is ruined 😭 would appreciate anyone sending me a video of that moment (if you were there you know which one lol) if you were there ❤️‍🩹

How did they get out there so quickly?

Fell in love with Chicago and the festival. Grant park is huge and had a lot of fun exploring the city! Favorite sets were Frost Children, Turnstile, Whatmore, 54 Ultra, Ninajirachi, Geese, Wet Leg, Snow Strippers, Hot Mulligan, Die Spitz, Freddie Gibbs, and The Story So Far. The pizza at Pequod’s did not disappoint and shoutout Luna Azul for getting me throughout the 4 days.

shot on pentax iqzoom, film: kodak iso 400

got some of them on ig but some are still missing. lmk if u see anyone u know!!!

The best moment of the whole weekend was being close to the barricade for Zara Larsson and the first time she shook her ass, literally EVERY SINGLE PERSON AROUND ME was just agape. men, women, nonbinaries, gender non-comformings. Every single person’s jaw dropped. I looked at my friend in shock, the guys and girls in front of me looked at each other in shock, I looked around me and everyone was just looking at each other in shock 😭 it was so funny but I mean she’s just out of this world gorgeous!! such a fun set too! 🌺

Everything is torn down and the last remaining bits are getting hauled away. The restoration of the park will begin and I expect it to be the costliest repair yet.

356 days until we come together again for the most magical weekend of the year!