Lollapalooza Dropping In On Chicago

After a disastrous 2004 when the entire tour was canceled due to sluggish ticket sales, Lollapalooza will return this summer as a one-off festival in Chicago's Grant Park. The event will be held July 23-24 and Billboard.com has learned that Beck, the Killers, Kings Of Leon and Widespread Panic are among the bands being eyed to appear.

The Lollapalooza Web site will re-launch on Friday (April 1), while the full lineup is expected to be announced three weeks later.

Last year's festival was to be a two-day traveling affair featuring Morrissey, String Cheese Incident, Wilco, the Pixies, Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth, among others, but was pulled in late June, less than a month before its planned start date.

How bad were advance ticket sales? "The worst I've ever seen," one promoter who asked not to be identified told Billboard at the time. "I know a market in the Northeast doing two nights that [sold] 450 tickets for the second night and 1,100 for the first. Other counts were less than 1,000 for both nights."

The William Morris Agency and Jane's Addiction leader/Lollapalooza co-founder Perry Farrell are back on board with the 2005 edition and are joined this year by Capitol Sports and Entertainment, which also books Texas' Austin City Limits festival.

It sucks that they can't pull this together more successfully as a national tour. Why are festivals so dead anymore? As a country we're stuck with the Warped Tour. Everything's so regional now. I'm sure Coachella and South by Southwest are somewhat interesting, but like I'm ever gonna make it to those. And shows like Area One and Curiosa are basically a bunch of folks out to see Moby and The Cure with way too many opening acts. I loved Lollapalooza. And as cliched and corporate as it was, I really did appreciate it. If a show featuring Morrissey, The Pixies and Sonic Youth couldn't sell out every fucking city it went to, we're doomed I'm afraid.

I'm convinced its because of the festival "atmosphere". Look at the average age of the fan base for those bands. Festivals are for kids and early twenny-sumthins who wanna drink or drug all day in the sun and enjoy the "vibe". Once you hit a certain age you don't wanna get sunburned, deal with $20 pizzas as your only lunch option, stand in long lines to pee in disgusting porta-potties and deal with the 21 year old puking next to you just to enjoy a nice set from Sonic Youth or the Pixies.

Or maybe that's just me.

Don't get me wrong. If that specific tour had been coming through my town last summer, I'd have gone. But not too happy about it.

GangstaFam said:

I'm convinced its because of the festival "atmosphere". Look at the average age of the fan base for those bands. Festivals are for kids and early twenny-sumthins who wanna drink or drug all day in the sun and enjoy the "vibe". Once you hit a certain age you don't wanna get sunburned, deal with $20 pizzas as your only lunch option, stand in long lines to pee in disgusting porta-potties and deal with the 21 year old puking next to you just to enjoy a nice set from Sonic Youth or the Pixies.

Or maybe that's just me.

Don't get me wrong. If that specific tour had been coming through my town last summer, I'd have gone. But not too happy about it.

that said...beck and the killers is a nice start. i can say i'm more than a little interested...

CarrieMpls said:

yeah, i think i agree with you. when i was 20, maybe even 25, it was still cool. now i'm over all that.

that said...beck and the killers is a nice start. i can say i'm more than a little interested...

GangstaFam said:

I'm convinced its because of the festival "atmosphere". Look at the average age of the fan base for those bands. Festivals are for kids and early twenny-sumthins who wanna drink or drug all day in the sun and enjoy the "vibe". Once you hit a certain age you don't wanna get sunburned, deal with $20 pizzas as your only lunch option, stand in long lines to pee in disgusting porta-potties and deal with the 21 year old puking next to you just to enjoy a nice set from Sonic Youth or the Pixies.

Or maybe that's just me.

Don't get me wrong. If that specific tour had been coming through my town last summer, I'd have gone. But not too happy about it.

http://www.suntimes.com/o...lla04.html