Tate Mcrae, MUNA and Wunderhorse Cap Lollapalooza 2026 in Chicago With Rain, Riffs and a Huge Finale

CHICAGO, IL — Lollapalooza 2026 ended Sunday night with a polished, high-energy finish in Grant Park, where Tate McRae headlined the closing stretch of the Chicago festival.

After rain complicated parts of Friday and Saturday, the final day stayed dry and let the weekend close on a smoother note. That made room for one of the event’s biggest pop spectacles, plus some of the most talked-about guitar sets of the festival.

Wunderhorse and the guitar bands delivered some of the weekend’s loudest momentum

Among the strongest Sunday performances was Wunderhorse, whose gritty, distortion-heavy set gave the weekend a jolt. Frontman Jacob Slater drove the band through songs from its 2024 album Midas, including “Rain,” “July” and “Teal,” before the group ended a little early.

Other artists kept that momentum going earlier in the day. Surfing for Daisy, the New Jersey alternative folk group, said its first Lollapalooza appearance felt bigger than expected, while Chicago’s own The Braymores turned an official aftershow into a homecoming moment for local fans.

MUNA mixed pop polish with a pointed message on the main stage

MUNA brought one of the weekend’s most forceful crowd moments when vocalist Katie Gavin opened “Big Stick” with an expletive-laced anti-Trump and anti-ICE remark. The audience responded with a big call-and-response, matching the band’s reputation for tightly crafted electro-pop with something far more confrontational.

Backstage, Gavin said the group’s new album, Dancing on the Wall, reflects the tension of living through wildfire damage and ICE activity in Los Angeles. The band said that pressure fed into songs about love, connection and suffering, and that perspective carried into a set that also highlighted Gavin’s Chicago-area roots.

McRae closes the festival with a big pop production and a hometown-style payoff

McRae’s set was the final major statement of the weekend, built around choreography, pyrotechnics and a fast-moving pop show that leaned heavily on spectacle. She told the crowd it was her first time headlining Lollapalooza, even though she had played the festival twice before.

She also reached for a more personal note as the night went on, telling fans that she once started posting videos from her bedroom and now faced a sea of 100,000 people. By the time she hit “you broke me first,” the closing-night audience had the kind of singalong ending festival organizers hope for after a weather-disrupted weekend.

Chicago's music scene, one story at a time — Chicago Music Guide.