Exploring Lollapalooza Beyond The Music

By: Jina Kelly – Headcount by Taylor Regulski for Lollapalooza 2022

Lollapalooza has always been more than just a music festival and each year, there are many sponsors and non-profits that allow festival goers opportunities to get involved and perhaps win something in the process.

I decided to start off with the T-Mobile area, where they had The Claw and being early in the day, it still took at least 20 minutes to get through the line, so I hate to think about how long it took for people who may have wanted to do this later in the day. Everyone had 1 attempt to win a prize, though T-Mobile customers were given a card in line that allowed them a second chance to win. Most people were not so lucky, however I did see one young lady who ended up winning a Lollapalooza water bottle, so, it was possible to win.

I then went to the About-Face Glitter Bar and tried out some of their wonderful make-up and waited for about 15 minutes (mid-morning) which was very acceptable. While waiting in line to try out the make-up, the representative told me about the products and the history of the company. Founded by Ashley Frangipane, otherwise know as HALSEY, she is also the company’s Chief Creative Officer and Head Makeup Artist, so, it is safe to say, HALSEY is 100% invested in and believes in this company.

That, to me, speaks volumes as does the facts that the makeup is 100% vegan and cruelty-free, and the makeup I tried stayed on for the majority of the day.

Dunkin had a few things going on, they had their own claw game where you could score gift cards, you could get a personalized headband or koozie and, they had an upper level where you can enjoy an amazing view of Buckingham Fountain and the Chicago skyline.

It was funny, my morning breakfasts were Dunkin breakfasts, as were a lot of other Lollapalooza attendees and the funny part was how everyone looked like they just rolled out of bed, whereas a few hours later, they were all dressed up to impress for the fest. So, Lollapalooza truly DOES run on Dunkin!

Tucked all the way back between the Lolla shop and Kidzapalooza, was the most serene place in Grant Park, Tito’s Stardust Experience, a place where adults 21 and older can enjoy some drinks, soak in a beautiful lake view, learn about Tito’s Handmade Vodka and even enjoy some games. It was quite nice.

Kidzapalooza always has a lot happening and I am so happy to see it come back again! A couple of the featured performances I got to see were the Happiness Club doing a lot of great dancing as well as Collaboraction’s The Light. All the activities are so fun looking and you can really lose yourself in the great family friendly space.

Who needs a soul anyway, right? Well, Liquid Death Country Club sure would like yours! To enter the Liquid Death Country Club space, you had to sign a pseudo contract and give your soul away, and for it, you receive a gold (metal) membership card. That is fair, right? I was led into a room with a nice, air conditioned bar and handed an ice-cold can of Liquid Death water to cool down. The space also had a tattoo parlor and I got my arm tattooed with the words “death to plastic”.

I went to the Toyota Music Den (who is celebrating their 10th anniversary at Lollapalooza) to try out their aura pictures section which was fun and the picture you receive tells you on the back what your aura means, I am not going to say what it revealed about me though. I played their Simon-says game inside one of their cars, collected another one of their great bandanas and even made arm candy bracelets. Lots of fun stuff in the Toyota Music Den.

While there, I also had to watch Maude Latour perform and it is always great to see artists in a nice, cozy setting like Toyota provides.

In Chowtown, there was a large array of food to choose from, but I decided on Kamehachi. I had the pot-sticker bowl and tofu rice bowl which (the bowl) made it very easy to walk and eat. Then I decided to have an orange sorbet from Vero Gelato, delicious!

TURN is a company that specializes in making reusable plastic cups to reduce the amount of waste we make and has been around for 10 years now and has stopped over 30 million single use cups from ending up in landfills according to their site. Their proprietary system employs washing systems, smart cups, collection bins and smart software. They were not fully set up for Lollapalooza with the collection bins, but they were definitely doing their part to help reduce waste. Learn more about them here: https://turnsystems.co/.

Right next to TURN (and pictured above) was Headcount and both were very nicely located in near Buckingham Fountain. Headcount, simply put, helps people to get registered to vote at various events, like Lollapalooza and help encourage a strong democracy. You can find Headcount at 33 other festivals in addition to Lollapalooza and you can also get involved with them too here https://www.headcount.org/volunteer/.

There were many more places that I explored that offered plenty of swag for those interested, and you could easily lose yourself in checking each of these areas out, and hopefully, you’ll get involved in some of these very positive causes to help improve the world we live in.

Lollapalooza was not just all activities, and, in fact, some of the music events I enjoyed the most were J-Hope, JORDY, Wet Leg, Crawlers, and Wallows, but there were a lot of other artists I saw in varying amounts throughout the weekend that made it all so wonderful. The lineup and scale of Grant Park make it very challenging to see and do everything, but my overall experience of Lollapalooza was very good.

I am in awe of all the performers, staff, security and even the police who made this a great and safe festival. This year the music that was presented was much more open and diverse, and it is a trend that I hope continues over the course of the next ten years that was just approved by the City Of Chicago and Lollapalooza.

GREAT JOB LOLLAPALOOZA! Until next year!

Links:

Lollapalooza:

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