Diversity Wins At Lollapalooza, and Hulu Brings It Right To Your Living Room

Diversity Wins At Lollapalooza, and Hulu Brings It Right To Your Living Room

By: Dennis M. Kelly

August 7th, 2023

Lollapalooza returned for another jam-packed, 4-day weekend with the most diverse lineup yet. Hulu returned as the official streaming partner and gave subscribers ‘the best seat in the house.’

Los Angeles-based Hannah Rad returned as host, and in addition to hosting the previous two years at Lollapalooza for Hulu, some of Rad’s on-air credits include multiple years of hosting Bonnaroo, Amazon Music Live Concert Series, Austin City Limits, and even hosting Lollapalooza through Red Bull TV back in 2017 and 2018.

Rad is also a CEO and Founder of Rad One Productions as well as a DJ who can be found hosting themed sets on Twitch.

Co-hosting with Rad was Gabe Ramirez, and his background includes talking sports on 670 The Score and Fox32 News, talking pop culture on B96, and gambling on BetQL. His first Lollapalooza experience was enjoying Eminem on the main stage and is more commonly known as Chicago Gabe.

Rad announced on Thursday that Hulu offered subscribers a bonus this year by bringing two channels of content for Thursday, something not previously available; only Fri-Sun. Subscribers were treated to live sets from over 70 artists, including headliners like Billie Eilish, Karol G, The 1975, Tomorrow X Together, and so much more!

In addition to the live sets, Rad and Ramirez brought subscribers exclusive interviews from the press area and Artist’s Village, featuring artists like Chicago’s DEHD, Bonnie X Clyde, London’s Matt Maltese, Tokyo’s Band-Maid, and many more!

They also took viewers on short excursions from around the city, including a trip on Chicago’s First Lady with Captain Nick, a tour of Navy Pier with Felicia Bolton, President & CEO at Navy Pier, Inc., a shopping trip to Notre, a feature on Papa Cache Sabroso Restaurant and even featured Yung Gravy throwing out the first pitch at a Cubs game.

These features helped to bring to light just a small amount of the many elements that help make Chicago great. From high fashion to sports, to great food, architecture, and all the wonderful things to do here in Chicago. All wrapped up in short, approximately 3-minute segments, yet packed with great information.

A lot of the genres of artists this year at Lollapalooza covered a much greater range, from Latin, Country, Pop, Rap, Soul, K-Pop, Metal, Rock, and Alternative. There was something for everyone, and I would dare say that this is the most all-inclusive festival ever!

Stand-out performances

Some stand-out performances included headliner Billie Eilish, who partnered with Reverb to bring fans a solar-powered set using an intelligent battery system. Other artist highlights included Karol G, the first Latina headliner, and Tomorrow X Together, the first South Korean band headliner.

Thee Sacred Souls’ performance, despite the rain, best captured the tone of the day with their soulful vibes, and then singer Josh Lane surprised fans by not only running to be close to them but he then hopped the fence and sang among the fans and proceeded to run with fans around the T-Mobile stage.

Band-Maid played a solid, heavy set with a driving bass line reminiscent of Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris, razor-sharp guitar licks, searing vocals by Saiki Atsumi, and a powerful drum beat that hit with the power of a heavy metal hammer laying it all down for fans.

One stand-out performance that was not captured by Hulu was Thirty Seconds To Mars’ set. Singer, Jared Leto (safely) jumped from the top of the Bud Light stage. The sight of this gave fans possibly the biggest scare of their lives, and the rest of the set was pretty awesome too.

Lollapalooza is one of the rare things in life where you already get a lot for your money, but instead of raising ticket prices, they keep giving fans more, so much so that many fans struggle to decide what artists they want to see more (over others).

Add to that more pop-up appearances like Sofi Tukker doing a pop-up dance party in front of Buckingham Fountain, and the choices are limitless, but Hulu helps you to narrow those choices down and get a great sense of the Lollapalooza experience. No matter where you are, Hulu brings you there.

“We’re all Lollapaloozians” Hannah Rad said, and I agree, whether you’ve attended personally or watched virtually, no matter who you are, we’re all one as music lovers, as festival lovers, and as Lollapalooza lovers.

One observation I made was many VIP sections had a lot of open spaces, and I would recommend that they make that section smaller or make it more affordable for people to enjoy the VIP perks.

One complaint I have with Hulu’s coverage is that there is nothing viewable in an on-demand format. Now that it is done, it is done and gone, with no chance to relive any of the moments or anything. I mean, we’re in an on demand world, at least give fans a week beyond the festival to see it. For this reason only, I would rate Hulu’s coverage to be two out of four stars.

Read more reviews here!

Hulu Streaming Schedule

Links:

Lollapalooza:

Official: http://www.lollapalooza.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lollapalooza
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lollapalooza‘
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lollapalooza/

Hulu:

Official: https://www.hulu.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hulu/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hulu
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hulu/

Hannah Rad:

Official: https://www.hannahrad.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hannahrad/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HANNAHRAD
Instagram: http://instagram.com/hannahrad

Gabe Ramirez:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/chicago_gabe
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chicago_gabe/