Lollapalooza

Etymology

The word—sometimes alternatively spelled and pronounced as lollapalootza or lalapaloosa—or "lallapaloosa" (P.G. Wodehouse, "Heart of a Goof") dates from a late 19th-/early 20th-century American idiomatic phrase meaning "an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance." Its earliest known use was in 1896. In time the term also came to refer to a large lollipop. Farrell, searching for a name for his festival, liked the euphonious quality of the by-then-antiquated term upon hearing it in a Three Stooges short film. Paying homage to the term's double meaning, a character in the festival's original logo holds one of the lollipops.

The word has also caused a slang suffix to appear in event-planning circles as well as in news and opinion shows that is used synonymously with other suffixes like "a-go-go", "o-rama", etc. The suffix "(a)palooza" is often used to imply (often in hyperbolic language) that an entire event or crowd was made over that term, e.g.: "Parks"-apalooza, "Nipple"-apalooza, etc.

Creation

Inspired by the Gathering of the Tribes concerts produced by Bill Graham, Perry Farrell, Ted Gardner, Marc Geiger, and Don Muller, conceived of the festival in 1990 as a farewell tour for his band Jane's Addiction. Unlike previous music festivals such as Woodstock, A Gathering of the Tribes, or the US Festival, which were one-time events held in one venue, Lollapalooza was a touring festival that traveled across the United States and Canada.

The inaugural 1991 lineup was made up of artists from various genres, drawing in headliners from post-punk such as Siouxsie and the Banshees to industrial music such as Nine Inch Nails, Ice-T, invited to represent rap (which backfired, as Ice-T used this platform to launch Body Count, a heavy metal band). Another key concept behind Lollapalooza was the inclusion of non-musical features. Performers like the Jim Rose Circus Side Show, an alternative freak show, and the Shaolin monks stretched the boundaries of traditional rock culture. There was a tent for display of art pieces, virtual reality games, and information tables for political and environmental non-profit groups promoting counter-culture and political awareness.

Success and decline

It was at Lollapalooza where Farrell coined the term "Alternative Nation". The explosion of alternative rock in the early 1990s propelled Lollapalooza forward; the 1992 and 1993 festivals leaned heavily on grunge and alternative acts, and usually featured an additional rap artist. Punk rock standbys like mosh pits and crowd surfing became part of the canon of the concerts. These years saw great increases in the participatory nature of the event with the inclusion of booths for open-microphone readings and oratory, television-smashing pits and tattooing and piercing parlors. After 1991, the festival included a second stage (and, in 1996, a third stage) for up-and-coming bands or local acts. Attendee complaints of the festival included high ticket prices as well as the high cost for food and water at the shows. The festival played at the Alpine Valley festival in East Troy, Wisconsin on August 29, 1992, and also at World Music Theater in Tinley Park, IL (near Chicago), where concertgoers ripped up chunks of sod and grass and threw them at each other and at the bands, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in damages to the venue.

Grunge band Nirvana was scheduled to headline at the festival in 1994, but the band officially dropped out of the festival on April 7, 1994. Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's body was discovered in Seattle the next day. Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, made guest appearances at several shows, including the Philadelphia show at FDR Park (usually taking time given to her by The Smashing Pumpkins vocalist/guitarist Billy Corgan), speaking to the crowds about the loss, then singing a minimum of two songs. Farrell worked with rock poster artist Jim Evans (T.A.Z.) to create a series of posters and the complete graphic decoration for the 1994 event, including two 70 foot tall Buddha statues that flanked the main stage.

In 1996, Farrell, who had been the soul of the festival, decided to focus his energy to produce his new festival project, ENIT, and did not participate in producing Lollapalooza. Many fans saw the addition of Metallica in 1996 as contrary to the festival's prior practice of featuring "non-mainstream" artists, and described the crowds attracted by Metallica as being singularly focused on the headliner without respect for the other performing artists. Moreover, festival cofounder Farrell felt that Metallica's macho image violated his peaceful vision for the festival, for alternative culture of the early 1990s was generally against macho behavior. Farrell quit the tour in protest.

Responding to the controversial Metallica tour, Lollapalooza made efforts to revive its relevance to audiences. The festival booked eclectic acts such as country superstar Waylon Jennings in 1996, and emphasized heavily electronica groups such as The Orb and The Prodigy in 1997. 1997, however, would prove to be the final tour from the initial series of Lollapalooza tours. The festival failed to find a suitable headliner in 1998, and therefore announced Lollapalooza's cancellation. The cancellation served as a signifier of alternative rock's declining popularity. In light of the festival's troubles that year, Spin said, "Lollapalooza is as comatose as alternative rock right now."

Revival and rebirth

In 2003, Farrell reconvened Jane's Addiction and scheduled a new Lollapalooza 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, presumably because of high ticket prices. Another tour scheduled for 2004 was to consist of a two-day festival taking place in each city. It was cancelled in June due to weak ticket sales across the country. Farrell partnered with Capital Sports & Entertainment (now C3 Presents), which co-owns and produces the Austin City Limits Music Festival, to produce Lollapalooza. CSE, Farrell and the William Morris Agency—along with Charles Attal Presents—resurrected Lollapalooza as a two-day destination festival in 2005 in Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois, 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 65,000 attendees, despite a 104 degree Fahrenheit Sunday (40 degrees Celsius) heat wave (two people were hospitalized for heat related illness).

It returned to Chicago on August 4–6, 2006. On October 25, 2006, the Chicago Park District and Capital Sports & Entertainment agreed to a five-year, $5 million deal, keeping Lollapalooza at Grant Park in Chicago until 2011. Lollapalooza ran August 3–5 in 2007, August 1–3 in 2008, August 7–9 in 2009, August 6–8 in 2010, August 5–7 in 2011, August 3–5 in 2012, August 2–4 in 2013 and August 1–3 in 2014. After a successful 2008 festival, another deal was signed to keep Lollapalooza in Chicago through 2018, guaranteeing the city $13 million.

In December 2015, it was announced that Lollapalooza 2016 would be 4 days long, July 28 to July 31, to celebrate the event's 25th anniversary.

Tickets and pricing

Tickets to the biggest Lollapalooza edition, in Chicago, are usually sold out extremely quickly. In the 2016 Lollapalooza, the four-day general passes sold out in about one day after they started the sale. The one-day passes were even quicker: they were gone in less than three hours after organizers revealed the lineup for the four-day music festival. Because of this phenomena, people who can not buy the passes try to get them through alternatives sources such as Craigslist and StubHub. This is a really common activity but usually, the prices tend to get higher on these websites.

On its earliest editions, the official passes used to cost $31.50. However, with its growth and prominent relevance on the music scenario, Lollapalooza passes' prices are substantially increasing over the years. Comparing the weekend passes for Lollapalooza 2016, which cost $335, with the Lollapalooza 2015 ones, which cost $275, the increase was over than 20%.

Chile

In 2010, it was announced that Lollapalooza would debut in South America, with a branch of the festival staged in Chile's capital Santiago on April 2–3, 2011. The Lollapalooza Chile line up included Jane's Addiction, Thirty Seconds to Mars, The National, Manny and Gil The Latin, The Drums, The Killers, Los Bunkers, Ana Tijoux, Javiera Mena, Fatboy Slim, Deftones, Los Plumabits, Cypress Hill, 311, The Flaming Lips and many others. The seventh edition in Chile will be held on 1-2 April with Metallica, The Strokes, The Weeknd and The XX as headliners.

Brazil

A Brazilian version of the event was confirmed in 2011, and had its inaugural edition at the Jockey Club in São Paulo on April 7 and 8, 2012. In the following year, Lollapalooza was again held at Jockey Club during Holy Week, this time expanding to three days that filled the whole Paschal Triduum – March 29–31, 2013. The third edition was moved to the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo's borough of Interlagos, happening on April 5 and 6, 2014. Interlagos remained the festival's home for the following editions, on March 28–29, 2015, March 12–13, 2016. and March 25–26, 2017

Argentina

On September 10, 2013, it was announced that the following year the festival will also be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina; thus expanding the South American branch after the festivals in Santiago and São Paulo.

Germany

On November 4, 2014, it was announced that the very first Lollapalooza Festival will be held in Europe, in the German capital of Berlin. It is scheduled for September 12–13, 2015, the proposed location is the historical airport ground of Berlin-Tempelhof. In true Lollapalooza fashion, this urban location serves to incorporate regional partners in presenting international events. In the official press release, festival founder Perry Farrell stated that, "Berlin's energy, vibrant art, fashion and music scenes are a mirror reflection of what Lollapalooza is all about and I can’t wait to share in this cultural exchange". Lollapalooza Germany was produced by the Lollapalooza U.S. team in addition to Melt! Booking and Festival Republic who have helped run both Reading and Leeds festival in England. The 2016 edition of the festival took place in the Treptower Park in Berlin on the 10th and 11 September. It drew 70.000 visitors each day.

At change.org an on-line petition against the festival in the Treptower Park gathered over 6400 supporters. Citizens from the area have created working groups to stop the festival taking place in the Treptower Park. There has been little communication with local inhabitants from either festival organisers or local government. People living directly next to the event location have received an invitation to move to a nearby hotel for the duration of the festival.

Paris

On October 12, 2016, Lollapalooza announced that they would be hosting a festival in Paris, France. The inaugural edition of this festival will be taking place at the city's Longchamp Racecourse grounds on July 22–23, 2017. The lineup for Lollapalooza Paris 2017 was announced on January 17, 2017 and includes a lineup featuring Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Weeknd as headliners. Following that, the lineup includes the likes of Imagine Dragons, Lana Del Rey, DJ Snake, London Grammar, Alt-J, The Roots, Marshmello, Liam Gallagher, Martin Solveig, Skepta, Glass Animals, Milky Chance, Don Diablo, Oliver Heldens, Crystal Fighters, Jauz, Alan Walker, and many more.

Other

On August 7, 2012, Perry Farrell announced that Lollapalooza will be debuting in Tel Aviv, Israel. Farrell described Israel as an "international music community that listens to everything we all listen to, but the artists weren’t traveling there so it was an opportunity." The event was scheduled for August 20–22, 2013 in Hayarkon Park, the city's largest urban park. However, the event has been postponed to an unknown date. While there was no definitive reasoning for the cancellation of the Israel date, various news sources report there are often financial challenges that attribute to producing a large-scale show with international artists within the political situation in the Mideast.

Criticism

Recording engineer, guitarist, and journalist Steve Albini has criticized Lollapalooza for its corporatization of popularized "alternative" music. In a 1993 interview, Albini commented:

Lollapalooza is the worst example of corporate encroachment into what is supposed to be the underground. It is just a large scale marketing of bands that pretend to be alternative but are in reality just another facet of the mass cultural exploitation scheme. I have no appreciation or affection for those bands and I have no interest in that whole circle. If Lollapalooza had Jesus Lizard and the Melvins and Fugazi and Slint then you could make a case that it was actually people on the vanguard of music. What it really is the most popular bands on MTV that are not heavy metal.

Both Jesus Lizard and the Melvins have subsequently performed at the event.

In April 2010, it was reported that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan had launched an antitrust investigation into the festival for imposing radius clauses on acts, contractually stipulating that they could not perform in cities within 300 miles of Chicago—including cities as far as Detroit, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee—for up to six months prior, and three months after Lollapalooza.