Videos by American Songwriter
…be sure to wear a flower in your hair.
We’ll be heading to Chicago this weekend as well. Be sure to check out the American Songwriter Twitter page throughout the weekend for live updates on the show.
Here’s some other helpful advice, from the festival’s organizers.
Lollapalooza Tip Sheet: Important Facts & New Features for the 2010 Festival
The 2010 edition of Lollapalooza descends on Grant Park this weekend, August 6-8, for three-days of music on eight stages, led by Soundgarden, Green Day, Lady Gaga, The Strokes, Arcade Fire, Phoenix, Social Distortion, MGMT, followed by about 120 more artists. This year’s festival footprint has expanded about 40% to encompass an additional 35 acres, which allows for better crowd flow and more to features to discover. With so much more ground to cover, here are some important tips to help festival-goers make the most of Lollapalooza.
TICKETS: Three-day passes and Single Day tickets are still available and can be purchased online at www.lollapalooza.com until Sunday, August 8 at 6pm. Walk-up tickets can be purchased at the Festival Box Office located just north of the main festival entrance at Michigan Avenue and Congress Plaza. Children 10 and under get in FREE with a ticket-holding adult.
EARLY WRISTBAND REDEMPTION: Three-day pass holders can redeem their tickets and Print Passes for weekend wristbands in advance at the Festival Box Office on Wednesday, August 4 and Thursday, August 5 from 3-8pm.
TWO ENTRANCES: In addition to the new location of the Festival’s Main Entrance at Michigan Avenue and Congress Plaza, a second North Entrance is located at Columbus and Monroe.
GETTING TO THE EVENT: There are two great, eco-friendly options for getting to Grant Park. For those riding a bicycle, a bike valet is available at Lake Shore and Monroe. For riders of the CTA, there are many routes to Grant Park, and commemorative Lollapalooza farecards are a great keep-sake of the Festival weekend. Purchasing farecards before arriving at Grant Park is recommended to cut down on waiting time.
HYDRATION: Attendees are allowed to bring up to 2 factory sealed bottles of water up to 1 Liter each. Empty Nalgene, Sigg, Klean Kanteen, or similar water bottles are also permitted and free water filling stations are available throughout the park. Lollapalooza’s new water sponsor, h2O, is helping to further Festival greening initiatives by selling water packaged in recyclable cartons, greatly reducing the amount of plastic bottles at the event. Water will be sold for $2.
FARMERS MARKET: Lollapalooza’s eco-friendly market, Green Street, will now feature an on-site farmers market offering organic, fair trade coffee drinks, organic sweets, and berry smoothies made from locally sourced berries, as well as fresh fruit, noodle dishes, bread, and cheese from local producers.
FOOD: In addition to many returning food vendors, Chicago’s award-winning, four-star chef Graham Elliot has recruited more than 15 new restaurants to Lollapalooza’s food court. Local favorites like Big Star, Sunda, Kuma’s Corner, The Southern, and Lou Malnati’s, to name a few, will be serving up their fare at Lollapalooza’s Chow Town.
LEDERHOSEN’S BIERGARTEN: Lederhosen’s features fine craft-brewed beers such as Becks, Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, and Budweiser, plus plenty of shade and popular German fare by Haus of Sausage.
UNCORKED WINE BAR: Uncorked Wine Bar, featuring Estancia Wines, provides a chic place to sip a glass of wine, catch some shade, and watch live performances on big screen TV’s.
FREE WIFI: This year, festival-goers have access to FREE WiFi throughout Grant Park, thanks to AOL Lifestream. This access makes it even easier to check schedules and maps, post updates, tweets, and photos, and connect with friends.
iPHONE AND ANDROID APPS: For the first time Lollapalooza’s mobile apps offer “Friend Finder” functionality. Users can select from among their Facebook friends to form a private group during the festival. They can then communicate with their friends via their group’s “Chat Wall”. Users can also plant virtual “flags” for their friends on the Lolla map, based on their GPS-determined location. These features work cross-platform, so Android and iPhone users will be able to communicate.
MOBILE CHARGING STATION: A mobile charging station is also available at the Lifestream Lounge.
WEBCAST: A live webcast of select festival performances will be offered at www.lollapalooza.com. In addition, a special broadcast that includes performances and audience shout-outs will be delivered to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Live pictures from the troops will be broadcast back to Grant Park and will appear on festival video screens. Schedules for both broadcasts will be available at www.lollapalooza.com
KIDZAPALOOZA: Lollapalooza is not just for adults. Children 10 and under get in free when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult. Kidzapalooza is an interactive area for families to experience music together. Surprise cameos are often made by Lollapalooza’s headliners. Other activities include Rock N Roll karaoke, break dancing workshops, skateboarding workshops, and more.
CELEBRITY KICKBALL GAME: Do312 Presents the Lollapalooza Celebrity Kickball Tournament at Upper Hutchinson Field at Grant Park, southwest of Balbo and Columbus. Players for the game include members from Wolfmother, Foxy Shazam, Kill Hannah, Arrested Development, and Team Bayside High, as well as personalities Bam Margera, Billy Dec, Ryan Manno, and Har Mar Superstar. RSVP to attend the game here.
