Lollapalooza opened Saturday for what is typically the busiest day of the four-day festival, with the sun out, temperatures rising and new rules in place requiring masks in all indoor spaces on festival grounds — in practice that means the box office, the merchandise stores near Buckingham Fountain and bathrooms, but not open-sided tents such as cocktail lounges.
The festival put out messages by social media reminding concertgoers to bring their masks. At the Michigan Avenue main entrance and doorway to the Lollapalooza Store, security guards gave black disposable masks to anyone needing one, and a representative for producer C3 Presents said they had enough for the rest of the weekend.
A security guard working in the store said if people are seen without masks, security is supposed to give them one and instruct them to put it on. Masks are also available at the medical tents.
Khora Finch, 18, pulled a cloth mask out of her pocket before she entered the store. She said she didn’t mind the new mask rules and came prepared in light of Chicago’s growing COVID-19 numbers. ”I was going to bring one anyway,” she said. “After hearing about all the news and the cases this week, I just had a feeling.”
Lollapalooza requires either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test from the last 72 hours for entry — and those in the latter group have previously been required to wear face coverings, though in practice few concertgoers have been seen with one. Neither the festival nor the city has released attendance numbers or crowd size estimates; C3 Presents said those figures would be made available when the festival concludes Sunday.
The city of Chicago now recommends that everyone over 2 wear masks when indoors as the delta variant spreads and cases in Cook County increase.
Lollapalooza attendees are also asked to comply with the Fan Health Pledge and not attend if they have COVID-19 symptoms or have been exposed to anyone who has tested positive.
Complying with rules while on the grounds may still be mostly in the hands of concertgoers. One store customer was seen walking around with a mask in hand while he shopped and paid for his T-shirt.
Evie Glaze, 16, and Brianna Ellerby, 17, of Naperville were at the front rail of the T-Mobile stage a little after the gates opened Saturday at 11 a.m., out of breath after running from the entrance. They said they were vaccinated and felt comfortable with Lollapalooza’s entry rules.
Their plan was to camp out all day at the rail up through headliners Megan Thee Stallion and Post Malone; a few friends were on their way to join them, and they planned to take shifts for food, drink and bathroom breaks. They weren’t wearing masks, and standing all day with the prospect of crowds pushing from behind didn’t worry them, they said.
“We got this!” Glaze said.
Ellerby said she had attended Friday and got caught in the middle of a mosh pit for Tyler, the Creator. Being up at the rail would be better.
“I almost passed out,” she said of the mosh pit. “It definitely felt odd being that close to people. It’s not even your own sweat on you, it’s everyone else’s.”
Though quieter again in the morning, Saturday’s main gates got busier in midafternoon with streams of new entries arriving for the rest of the day. Food vendors in Chow Town had lines that would only grow through the evening.
Lollapalooza has lit-up logos and an oversized empty picture frame set up next to Buckingham Fountain that are popular for selfies — those had lines as well.
Ahead of internet star Megan Thee Stallion’s headline performance, a number of artists who found fame on social media amassed crowds at Lolla’s seven stages. Kooze, a DJ who performed Saturday afternoon, produced music for six years before he turned to TikTok, a video streaming platform, and began posting 30-second clips of his mashups in January 2020.
”You’ve probably seen me on your screens,” Kooze yelled into the crowd at his show. “Before that, I was a nobody!”
Kooze didn’t know whether the crowd at Perry’s stage was all there for him, or if they just needed a concert to go to, but he didn’t care. He found out about the set two weeks ago and was “blown away” when he heard he would be performing his second-ever show at one of the largest music festivals in the country.
“I love doing it, playing music for people,” he said after the performance. “It’s so cool because I can’t see that many people through a screen, I just see a number. Seeing them face to face is a whole different experience.”
The sun has been out most of the weekend, but extreme heat has been less of an issue this Lollapalooza.
People still tried to beat the heat by sitting in the shade or dancing under fans blowing mist into the crowds. At one of the first sets of the day, Kooze at Perry’s Stage, two people were attended to by medical staff for heat exhaustion. Outside the Backseat Lovers’ set at the T-Mobile Stage, a group doused one another with sprays from foam water guns, and others took refuge from the sun and cooled themselves with fans. Others braved the crowds.
If there is a Lollapalooza opposite of a mosh pit, Bill Bolen, 64, and Julie Miserda, 54, were it — dancing and slowly spinning in each other’s arms at the ADA accessible platform off the T-Mobile stage to the Backseat Lovers.
Bolen said they come every year. “We love the music, we love the crowds, we love the scene,” he said. He has Parkinson’s disease, but the couple still loves dancing, and Bolen refuses to get old and dated. Staying up on new bands is important to him. “That’s why I come to Lollapalooza, to stay current.”
Chicago Tribune’s Maggie Prosser, Mariah Rush, Doug George and Vashon Jordan Jr. contributed.
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