Lollapalooza – In America, music festivals are the thing and no one wants to miss one, right? Screaming the lyrics of your favorite bop song at the top of your lungs, jumping left and right, waving your hands with all your might are the common things we do in music festivals. Aside from Coachella, Lollapalooza is one of the festivals we really bop into whenever the chance. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 pandemic that the world is still fighting with, the Lollapalooza 2020 is officially cancelled.
Along with the wide arrays of music festivals that were supposed to hit and shake the ground, the Chicago music festival became the latest event to be cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot announced Tuesday that all special events in the city will be canceled through Labor Day. But fret not; Lollapalooza will still hit us up with a bang through “a weekend-long livestream event” on its scheduled 2020 dates, July 30 up to August 2.
The organizers of the said music festival had to make a wise decision and not to compromise their music patrons. Unconventional as it seems, but the music festival organize have left no choice but to resort to online platforms to push through the festival that music festival enthusiast has been waiting for.
“We wish we could bring Lollapalooza to Grant Park again this year, but we understand why things can’t move forward as planned. The health and safety of our fans, artists, partners, staff and community is always our highest priority,” festival organizers said in a statement on Lollapalooza’s website and social media. “Rest assured, we will be working hard behind the scenes to deliver Chicago a spectacular celebration of Lollapalooza’s 30th Anniversary in the summer of 2021.”
The official statement released by the festival organizers also gave us the gist of what to expect during the livestream event. Since we are all staying at homes and our hype is still at rest, the livestream will still give us the taste the power of music.
On the other hand, the livestream will include “performances from around the city and beyond, epic archival sets from Chicago and the festival’s six international editions, never-before-seen footage from the 1990s and much more.”
With the threat of coronavirus the organizers will beep us up for further details. Likewise, a full schedule will be out next month. Still, the lineup for the 2020 festival was never announced. And fans are still puzzled and cannot contain their excitement and hype.
Consequently, most music festivals have been canceled or postponed due to the global problem which is the COVID-19. With the Lollapalooza Festival being one of the last music festivals that were cancelled, several music events undergone the same unfortunate scenario too. Moreover, the most awaited Coachella and Stagecoach were pushed from their usual spring dates to October. Meanwhile, Bonnaroo is set to take place and bang us out in September, and SXSW was one of the earliest events to be canceled due to the pandemic, calling off its 2020 edition altogether.
The new normal seems difficult to be adjusted with, right? Who would have thought that the usual routines we are used to are set to break. But most importantly, we need to abide with social distancing rule to avoid the drastic and untimely contact with the coronavirus. As they say, it is better safe than sorry. For now, we have to turn-on our laptops and smart phones, resort to livestreams, volume up our speakers and keep our music ears pleased enough to relive our frustrations in life.
