All 75,000 tickets for Friday's opening day of Lollapalooza at Grant Park have been sold, according to the festival Web site. It marks the first sell-out for the festival since it made the lakefront its home in 2005.
The Friday headliner, Radiohead, is making its first appearance in Chicago since releasing its latest studio album, “In Rainbows," on its Web site last year. The band was planning to announce a Thursday concert at the Chicago Theatre, but canceled it at the last minute to allow singer Thom Yorke time to recover from an illness. The band last played Grant Park exactly seven years ago, on Aug. 1, 2001. That concert was also a sell-out, but only 25,000 tickets were sold.
Tips for enjoying Lollapalooza weekend Take it from somebody who's spent a few long weekends at rock festivals: Plan but don't overplan.
To make the most out of Lollapalooza, find a few key bands you really want to see. But leave some gaps in your schedule so you can bump into something great. The best part of a big rock festival is the happy accident, the possibility that the next unknown you see will change your life. If you don't leave Lollapalooza weekend with at least three new favorite bands, you haven't done enough wandering.
Mom will want you to hydrate. She's not wrong. If you drink beer, drink even more water. Find the shade and sit down once in a while to enjoy the music. The Kidz stage can be a great place to recharge the batteries while staying out of the sun, and take some pressure off your feet and lower back. You might even see something cool. Folks like Patti Smith and Perry Farrell have been known to sit in.
Most of all, savor the scene. Most rock festivals are in the middle of a remote field, far from civilization. They are not framed by the Chicago skyline, Buckingham Fountain and Lake Michigan. Lollapalooza, at its best, is a huge party on one of the most beautiful pieces of public property in North America, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Here's hoping the promoters and the bands rise to the occasion this weekend. If they do, the fans should be in for something special.
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