Lollapalooza Takes Over Grant Park This Weekend!! Are You Ready?

Do you have your Lollapalooza wristband on? Do you have your musical schedule planned out already? Backpack is filled with essentials (2 sealed water bottles, ear plugs, towel, sunscreen, a hidden snack, camera, cell)? Lolla app already loaded on your smartphone? Rock Island Metra schedule in your pocket?

Then I would say you are ready to go to Lolla this weekend at Grant Park. This will be my fourth time attending Lolla since is landed in Grant Park in 2005. Single day and 3 day passes for this year's Lolla are sold out. So, if your cousin Vinny is claiming he has a spare ticket for you that he got thru Ticketmaster, take a pass on it. Tickets are a wristband with a high tech computer chip on it so take good care of it until you get to the concert gate and place it on your right wrist!  Even though kids under 10 years old are able to get into the event for free with a ticket holding adult, I would say leave the little ones at home. With 100,000 people attending the event on a daily basis, you don't want to lose little Jimmy or have to deal with any tantrums, or have them tug on your shirt asking 'can we go now?'

If you can, take the Rock Island to the show, shows end at 10pm, plenty of time to catch the 11:15 train home. Deciding to drive, then reserve a parking spot thru spothero.com, don't go to the city last minute trying to find an available parking garage as many of the garages will fill up fast! Please leave the flip flops at home, there are eight stages to visit throughout the day, lots of grass and concrete to cover, be sensible about the shoes! Download Lolla's 2013 app on your smartphone for any updates on the shows. That app came in handy last year, when the rain blasted thru the fields on Saturday's show, however the promoters are promising better communication and signs to help fans know where to go if another large storm crashes down on Grant Park. Go to Lollapalooza.com for all the do's and don'ts at park, and for food vendor listings. If you are exhausted from all the heat, crowds, walking, standing, go to the Green Street area, less crowds, and you can grab some healthy food, sprawl out under a tree to re-energize (there will be lots of corporate tents too, worth chilling out there as well, they are air conditioned and you can plug in your phone to recharge).

Over 3 days, there will be a 150 bands playing, impossible
to see all of them. Bands worth seeing: local guys Smith Westerns, Father John Misty, New Order, Hot Chip, Beach House, Cat Power, Local Natives, Postal Service, The Cure, The National, Tegan & Sara, and of course Nine Inch Nails. I will be waiting to hear what Trent & Co has in store for us, their played Lolla first in 1991 and then 2008, I am expecting a visually exciting stage set up and lots of loud sounds. Got my earplugs ready and my good friend Bryon in tow, we will rock out this weekend. Last tip, leave the cranky, flip flop wearing friends who get drunk by 3pm at
home!!