The Coolest Things We Saw At Lollapalooza 2015

Another Summer has passed and another year, Chicago has been graced with Lollapalooza‘s presence. Widely named one of the nation’s “Big four” festivals along with Coachella, Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits– it is always trying to impress. And this year they nailed it yet again. One of the most eclectic yet organized lineups combined with a gorgeous city and superb planning always makes for an amazing weekend. Here’s some of our favorite things from the weekend.

Photo Credit: Charles Reagan Hackleman

By far the most mixed crowd of the weekend was the massive crowd that the legend, Paul McCartney drew in. The crowd ranged from the 70 year old couples that are seeing Paul for the 12th time in 38 years to the 15 year old who told me “My dad said he would buy me my three day pass if I saw his favorite musician with him.” The crowd was of all ages and sizes- and not everyone knew every single song- but I promise you, everyone knew every word when The Beatle kicked off his rendition of “Hey Jude.”  It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

 BTSM had the challenge of waking up the Perry’s crowd with a 12:30 performance on Sunday. Challenge completed. The trio took the present crowd to electro church with their abrasive, hard hitting tunes. The people that ten minutes prior were saying ” I don’t know how I’m gonna survive day three were all of a sudden in the midst of the crowd, going crazy. I know because I was one of them.

Weather is unpredictable – we wish for every day to be 75 degrees and sunny…especially on festival weekends but we know that’s not always the case. Sunday of Lollapalooza was one of those off days. Looming storms forced Lollapalooza to evacuate- once during the day and then again right around 10:10 before the headliners finished. Within minutes of the first evacuation, lollapalooza staff were directing festival goers to parking garages and had the streets shut down so the thousands of people were not in a danger of getting hit by a zooming car. Have you ever held a party with 40+ people at your house? Try that with 100,000 people every day.

NGHTMRE made his Lollapalooza debut with a boom. His set was reduced to a half hour because of the looming storms, but he absolutely hit the ground running and kicked off his set by screaming “I GOT 30 FUCKING MINUTES LOLLAPALOOZA LET’S GOOOO.”  Knowing he had such a short set he absolutely had no time to waste in order to fully draw the crowd in…and that’s exactly what he did. People on their way to Bassnectar’s stage stopped to see what the commotion was and stayed for his entire set. This kids got a bright future ahead of him – hopefully a future Lollapalooza performance.

Dillon Francis is one of the most fun performers in the EDM world right now. His online antics make their way out on stage while he’s performing. While playing out Kanye West‘s “All Day” he screamed “I’M SO WHITE!” But the highlight of Dillon Francis’s performance came from the guests he brought on stage. Vic Mensa made an appearance to perform a song and get the crowd hyped up. Dillon Francis also invited Kygo and James Hersey on stage with him for a performance of the trio’s track- “Coming Over.”

Nestled in between stages was The Samsung Galaxy Experience – a lounge sort of area where people were welcome to try out new products and try playing games. Samsung owners were able to gain a chance to enter the Samsung owner’s lounge that had an open bar and popsicles. But the coolest part was the chance to try The Samsung Gear VR kits. For the first time ever there was performances being streamed with virtual reality capabilities. Users put on a futuristic piece of headgear and sound-immersive headphones as staff set it up. It was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. As you turned your head and tried to look around you were actually able to look around the stage as if you were standing backstage watching the performance live. Is this part of the future of live music?

Photo Credit : Shea Flynn