Next phase, new wave
Despite slow ticket sales this year, fest owners say Lolla’s still got a future
In a city with the most big summer music festivals in America, Lollapalooza towers above — a four-day spectacle in Grant Park with maximum attendance of 400,000. It marks its 15th year on the lakefront starting Aug. 1, but there are signs that the festival has lost some of its mojo.
In past years, Lollapalooza typically sold out within minutes of putting tickets on sale. In 2016, when it expanded to four days from three, it sold out 80,000 four-day passes in less than an hour. But this year, four-day passes ($340) remained available a week before the festival was to begin, and of the 20,000 one-day passes available ($130) each day of the festival, only Aug. 3 had sold out.
But Charlie Jones, co-owner of Texas-based Lollapalooza promoters C3 Presents, says he’s confident about the festival’s health and its future in Chicago. The festival made the city its home in 2005 under the administration of Mayor Richard M. Daley and continued under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who recently told the Tribune that a contract that ties the festival to Grant Park through 2021 should be renewed
under the administration of new mayor Lori Lightfoot. Lollapalooza brings more than $5 million in revenue into the city annually, and “there is a price to be paid if they don’t get renewed,” Emanuel said. “That would be a major commercial and economic hit.”
Mayor Lightfoot could not immediately be reached for comment, but in an interview Wednesday, Jones said that he has already met with her to discuss the festival. Here are a few excerpts from that interview with Jones on several key issues facing Lollapalooza:
Q: Are you concerned about the slower ticket sales this year?
A: There is a lot of competition for people’s entertainment dollar. The festival is tracking to sell out, and it will sell out. It should be sold out by the time we open doors on Thursday.
We have to adapt yearly to what kind of event people expect. When we started out in Grant Park, we used to sell tickets through radio ads, flyers, posters. Those days are gone. It’s whole different beast now. We will continue to adapt.
Q: How will you do that?
A: We realize there are a lot of choices for people: gaming, Netflix, movies, outdoor activities, so much to choose from. They probably take more time to make decisions. The music has to adapt from year to year.
If you look at our lineup 14 years ago, it was heavier in certain genres (particularly alternative rock), and now we see the rise of dance (music) and hip-hop. We’re seeing changes year to year based on the type of music that is popular. Right now, it’s skewing younger, but the lineup is still diverse. It has something for everybody.
Q: Your contract with the city takes you through 2021. Do you expect to continue Lollapalooza in Grant Park beyond that?
A: As long as we continue to run the show well and safely, I expect our contract with the city to continue. I believe that Lollapalooza has become part of the fabric of the city in the summer and the city has embraced it.
Q: Have you had any discussions with Mayor Lightfoot about this?
A: I’ve had a couple meetings with her. She’s got a big job in front of her and it will take some time to get the new administration in place. Our first meeting we spent actually talking about music, reflecting back on Amy Winehouse’s set at Lollapalooza (in 2007). She was there and I was there, both watching that set, and we were talking about how special that was, one of the last big shows she ever performed (Winehouse died in 2011).
We’ll be speaking in coming days and she’s excited about getting a look behind the scenes, make sure she’s knowledgeable about what we do. Apparently she’s a huge music fan.
Q: What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in how you run the festival since 2005?
A: I think the main thing is the priority for safety. It takes year-round planning to make sure it is a well-run, very entertaining, safe event. It is a bigger event now, the times around the world are different, and there is a lot
more planning involved to make sure the event is safe.
We’ve been getting questions from parents about safety, specifically about their kids coming down there. With the planning we do and the security we have in place from police and other services, it is a place that I feel confident sending to my own kids to. (Jones has two daughters, aged 14 and 11.)
Q: Evacuations are now fairly commonplace at outdoor music festivals in Chicago and elsewhere because of weather issues. The Pitchfork festival just had its third evacuation since 2013. Lollapalooza has also had three. How has that changed your safety preparations?
A: The evacuation in 2012 did change the way large-scale events address safety and evacuation. We had planned on paper, but in 2012 we were faced with a decision about whether to evacuate. We started the evacuation an hour before we needed to, almost like a dress rehearsal, and then the storm did hit.
It turned out to be the right call (to go early) because it became very unsafe with high winds. We learned a lot and our industry learned a lot from that event. It’s all based on wind speed and lightning. The show can take rain all day long — the Foo Fighters played through rain (in 2011), but there was no high wind or lightning. If the wind had hit a certain threshold and lightning hit within a certain perimeter, we would have canceled that year too.
Q: Do you feel that all the staff on the grounds is adequately informed about your evacuation plans should another one be needed this year?
A: We can’t talk to every employee or every vendor. We have procedures and policy in place. If a storm is coming and we need to evacuate, you are going to see information on (video) screens, over speaker systems, push notifications on your device, the web site will have notifications and all media outlets will have info based on whatever info we get.
I like to think the planning for Lollapalooza is based on best practice around the world and we will be ready.