Lollapalooza To Return at Near or Full Capacity this Summer

As the U.S. moves closer to reopening seemingly every day, it looks like a big step forward will come in mid-summer, when the Lollapalooza Festival will return to Chicago with a four-day event at its usual place and date range — Grant Park, July 29-August 1. The city of Chicago gave the event the greenlight at near-to or -full-capacity, insiders report, and an official announcement, likely with headliners, is expected to come next week.

Late Thursday, CBS-2 Chicago cited an unnamed rep at “City Hall” as saying: “The Mayor’s Office and CDPH have been in conversation with several large event organizers, including the team at Lollapalooza, on how to bring these experiences back to Chicago in safe way. We are taking these events case by case and determining how we can ensure the safety of our patrons. While conversations have been moving forward in a positive way, nothing has been confirmed.” However, multiple industry sources tell Variety that the festival is moving forward, and the CBS-2 article also notes that the city plans to reopen with no restrictions by July 4, nearly four weeks before the festival.

Also last month, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that the city is loosening its current pandemic restrictions, with allowed to operate with 15 people per 1,000 square feet, as reported by the Tribune. The city’s first street festival is scheduled to be the Windy City Smokeout on July 8-11, although full vaccination is required for all vendors, performers and staff, and non-vaccinated attendees would be required to present proof of a negative COVID test taken within three days of entry.

Lollapalooza will not even be the first major festival to be held in the U.S. since the fall of 2019. The three-day hip-hop festival Rolling Loud, with headliners A$AP Rocky, Travis Scott and Post Malone, will take place July 23-25 at the 65,000-capacity Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. New York is also moving ahead with its Governors Ball Festival in September, with a lineup featuring Rolling Loud performers A$AP Rocky, Post Malone, 21 Savage, Megan Thee Stallion and Dababy as well as more Lollapalooza-centric artists like Billie Eilish, J Balvin, Phoebe Bridgers and Portugal. The Man.

It seems likely that many of those artists would perform at Lollapalooza as well.