The Lollapalooza Festival
Lollapalooza is an American travelling music festival featuring
alternative rock, rap, and punk rock bands, dance and comedy
performances, and craft booths. Organized in 1991 by Perry
Farrell, singer for the band Jane's Addiction, Lollapalooza
ran annually through til 1997, and was revived in 2003. The
festival encapsulated American youth culture for the 1990s
much as Woodstock did for the 1960s; Lollapalooza Generation
is sometimes used as a synonym for Generation X.
Perry Farrell conceived of the Lollapalooza festival in 1990
as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction. The name Lollapalooza
means "something outstanding or unusual"; Farrell
heard the word in a Three Stooges short film and liked the
sound.
Unlike previous music festivals such as Woodstock or the
US Festival, which were one-time events held in one venue,
Lalapalooza was a touring show -- a modern-day chautauqua
-- that travelled across the United States and Canada. Instead
of drawing music enthusiasts from around the country to one
spot, Lollapalooza came to them -- bringing West Coast and
East Coast underground culture to cities in the heartland.
Because of this, many more people saw, and participated in,
Lollapalooza than had been to any previous music festival.
It was an important vehicle for disseminating the alternative
music of the period.
In 2003, however, Farrell reconvened Jane's Addiction and
scheduled a new tour. The festival schedule included venues
in 30 cities through July and August. The 2003 tour achieved
only marginal success with many fans staying away because
of high ticket prices and heavy corporate sponsorship. Another
tour scheduled for 2004 was canceled in June due to weak ticket
sales across the country.
Farrell sold the Lllapalooza brand to Capital Sports &
Entertainment, which has managed the Austin City Limits Music
Festival. Capital resurrected Lollapalooza as a two-day festival
2005 in Grant Park, Chicago, with an even greater variety
of performers (70 acts on five stages) than that of the touring
festival. The festival was generally successful, attracting
over 30,000 attendees, despite a 104 degree Sunday heat wave.(Only
3 people were hospitialized for heat related illness.)
Lollapallooza 3 Day Pass
Lollapalooza [3 Day Pass]