Lollapalooza 2020 Cancelled, Virtual Edition Planned

The long anticipated cancellation of Lollapalooza is finally official. One of North America’s largest music festivals, scheduled for July 30-August 2, has been shut down due to covid-19 concerns. Chicago’s biggest music festival brings in around 100,000 people per day over four days, a mass gathering that now seems unthinkable in the age of coronavirus. “The reality is, bringing 100,000 people en masse, in close quarters, which is what the daily head count is every single day at Lollapalooza, bringing that many people from all over the country, downtown, in Grant Park, every single day, we might as well just light ourselves on fire,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot at a news conference announcing the cancellation. In its place, the festival is planning a weekend-long virtual edition to include livestreamed performances from Chicago and beyond, archival sets from past festivals both in Chicago and Lollapalooza’s six international editions, and “never-before-seen footage” from the early days of Lollapalooza in the 1990s. The full schedule is expected to be announced in July. PHOTO BY CHARLES REAGAN HACKLEMAN FOR LOLLAPALOOZA 2019