| EVENT REPORT 08.11.09 6:18 PM |
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Brands Target V.I.P. Lollapalooza Guests—Without Hitting Festival Grounds
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More than a mile long, crowded, and totally exposed to the elements, last weekend's Lollapalooza grounds were enough to wear down even the most die-hard music fans. But brand marketers offered a respite at off-site retreats for musicians, publicists, agents, press, and other tastemakers looking for a break from the festival—and free merch.
Near the northern end of Grant Park, the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago hosted the weekend-long by-invitation Music Lounge, which BMF Media produced and filled with brand activations. Now in its fourth year, the lounge stayed open from Friday through Sunday, offering daytime and nighttime activities. During the day, a cafe sponsored by Cafe Bustelo and housed on the hotel's second floor offered complimentary lunches and live acoustic sets from singers such as April Smith and Danni.
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Lollapalooza, Hey Champ, Thievery Corporation, Brazilian Girls, Southern Comfort, Bumble and Bumble, Lifestyles, Playboy, Aze, Rock the Vote, Santigold, The Virgins, Passion Pit, Dickies, David Barton Gym, Blue Microphones, Coveroo, Red Sox, Ravinia, Alize, Cafe Bustelo, Stoli, Tobasco |
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| EVENT REPORT 08.11.09 11:29 AM |
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Lollapalooza Draws Sold-Out Crowd Despite Rain, Extreme Heat
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 | Some 225,000 fans crowded into Grant Park during Lollapalooza.
Photo: Barry Brecheisen for BizBash |
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Produced by C3 Presents, Lollapalooza—the music festival that overtook Grant Park from Friday to Sunday, offered performances from 130 bands, and drew a sold-out crowd of 225,000—had plenty of on-site brand activations. Sponsored stages throughout the park bore signage calling out companies such as VitaminWater and Budweiser; PlayStation had a tented structure housing its new games; and Honda sponsored a whole "Eco Zone," where a display area showcased the company's 2010 Honda Insight hybrid vehicle. But rain ponchos needed no advertising to see a sudden spike in sales due to festival traffic.
As crowds headed to festival grounds during a Friday downpour, Walgreens and 7-Elevens locations downtown were wiped out of umbrellas and rain gear; and it was not uncommon to see concertgoers cutting up trash bags for use as cover-ups. But as bands such as Fleet Foxes, Ben Folds, and Of Montreal performed, the only weather-related inconveniences seemed to be sightlines impaired by a sea of umbrellas floating above fans' heads, and the occasional chilly guest—if that was the reasoning behind one girl's exclamation of "I want to crawl into your beard" during the Fleet Foxes show.
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Lollapalooza, Q101, Playstation, Perry Farrell, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Honda, Budweiser, Tool, Jane's Addiction, Snoop Dogg, St. Pauli, Vitaminwater, Of Montreal, Fleet Foxes, Ben Folds |
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| TOP 100 EVENTS 07.07.09 3:40 PM |
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Chicago's Top Festivals 2009
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 | Taylor Swift at the Chicago Country Music Festival
Photo: City of Chicago/Mayor's Office of Special Events |
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1. Taste of Chicago
Now in its 28th year, Taste of Chicago took place June 26 to July 5 and welcomed around 3.5 million visitors. The 10-day festival, held in Grant Park, allows guests to sample dishes from more than 70 area restaurants.
2. Chicago Air and Water Show
The 51-year-old show is billed as the largest spectator event in the United States. The 2009 incarnation will take place August 15 and 16 and will draw an estimated 2.2 million spectators.
3. Lollapalooza
The 2009 Lollapalooza will bring more than 100 musical acts and an estimated 150,000 fans to Grant Park from August 7 to 9. The event lures a bevy of tourists, celebrities, and national press, and companies such as PlayStation, MySpace, and Dell sponsor areas on the festival grounds.
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Chicago's Top 100 Events, Taste of Chicago, Chicago Air & Water Show, Lollapalooza, Chicago Blues Festival, Chicago Jazz Festival, Grant Park Music Festival, Chicago SummerDance, Northalsted Market Days, Outdoor Film Festival, Printers Row Book Fair, Chicago Country Music Festival, Pitchfork Music Festival |
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| NEWS 06.25.09 10:27 AM |
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Lollapalooza After-Shows to Include Late-Night Performances From Beastie Boys, Fleet Foxes
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Earlier this week the lineup for this year's Lollapalooza after-shows—a series of concerts that take place in venues throughout the city, showcase acts from the festival, and generally strike up at around 10 p.m.—posted on the event's official Web site. The after-show schedule begins on August 5—two days before the fest officially returns to Chicago—and runs through August 9. Performances will include a Beastie Boys concert at Congress Theater on August 6 and a Fleet Foxes show at Metro on August 8. If you're looking for offbeat business entertaining options or information about possible conflicts when scheduling events during that time, ticket info and a complete lineup for the late-night shows are available here. —Jenny Berg
RELATED TOPICS
Lollapalooza, Beastie Boys, Fleet Foxes |
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| NEWS 06.18.09 10:51 AM |
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Lollapalooza (Finally) Announces Official Lineup on Sponsored Stages
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Though news outlets started leaking details of this year's Lollapalooza lineup back in March, the festival's complete—and, this time, confirmed—schedule went up on its Web site yesterday. Companies such as PlayStation, VitaminWater, and Budweiser will sponsor the festival's stages, where acts such as Peter Bjorn and John, Lykke Li, and Neko Case will appear; each stage will be named after its corporate backer. A feature on the Lollapalooza Web site allows users to create their own schedules for the event and post planned itineraries to their Facebook pages. The festival will take place the weekend of August 7. —Jenny Berg
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Lollapalooza, Facebook, Playstation, VitaminWater, Budweier, Neko Case, Lykke Li, Peter Bjorn and John |
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| NEWS 04.21.09 1:48 PM |
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Snoop Dogg, Private Cabanas on Tap for This Year's Lollapalooza
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 | The entrance to Lollapalooza 2008
Photo: Eric Craig for BizBash |
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Though local papers leaked some of the details of the lineup at this summer's Lollapalooza in early March, festival producer C3 Presents revealed the official schedule this morning.
As predicted, headline acts will include the Beastie Boys, Depeche Mode, and Jane's Addiction; other acts that will be taking various stages in Grant Park from August 7 to August 9 include Snoop Dogg, the Decemberists, and Fleet Foxes. The festival's complete lineup is available here.
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Lollapalooza, Beastie Boys, Snoop Dogg, Fleet Foxes, Jane's Addiction, Depeche Mode, the Decemberists |
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| NEWS 03.06.09 5:47 PM |
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Tribune Announces Lollapalooza's (Unconfirmed) Headliners
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Depeche Mode, the Beastie Boys, and Jane's Addiction will likely serve as headline acts for this year's Lollapalooza, The Chicago Tribune reported today. Though the festival's promoters declined to confirm the news, "multiple sources inside the industry said the three headliners are a lock for the festival," according to music critic Greg Knot. The festival, now in its fifth year, will overtake Grant Park on the weekend of August 7. —Jenny Berg
RELATED TOPICS
Depeche Mode, Beastie Boys, Jane's Addiction, Lollapalooza |
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| NEWS 08.05.08 5:01 PM |
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Record Attendance Brings Rave Reviews, Few Arrests, and One Close Call for Lollapalooza 2008
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The grass may still be trampled and muddy in Chicago’s Grant Park after Lollapalooza’s fourth showing since settling in the city in 2005, but there has already seen enough media reaction to assess what everyone thought of the festival. Landmark attendance, A-list parties, and celebrated performances sprinkle the glowing reviews, but a little extra reading reveals that things got a little scary for some on Saturday night.
The Chicago Tribune took time to acknowledge the magnitude of the event (a record-busting 225,000 fans, with all three days sold out) and to assess the damage. Fortunately, a mere 14 people were arrested, most for being drunk and disorderly. As far as injuries, about 100 were treated during the first two days for dehydration and twisted ankles, and a solitary hooligan received attention for a punch wound.
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Lollapalooza |
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| NEWS 08.05.08 3:00 PM |
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Official Lolla After-Party Canceled at Just About the Last Possible Moment
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Perry Farrell's official Lollapalooza after-party was scheduled to take place at 11 p.m. on Saturday night. With sponsors like Belvedere vodka and Beatport.com on board, and performances from Farrell and the band Does It Offend You, Yeah? slated for the evening's entertainment, the event was expected to lure 1,400 guests and was set to take place in a warehouse space on Magnolia Avenue.
At 9:45 p.m. on Saturday evening, event publicists sent out a mass e-mail to notify guests that the after-party had changed venues and was going to take place at downtown's Sound Bar. By 10:40 p.m., an apologetic follow-up note explained that the event had been cancelled and offered no further explanation. At this time, event organizers have no official comment on the cancellation.
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Lollapalooza, Perry Farrell |
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| EVENT REPORT 08.05.08 2:57 PM |
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Lollapalooza Adds More Stages—and a Beer Garden—to This Year's Sold-Out Festival
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 | Concert performance screens at Lollapalooza's beer garden
Photo: Eric Craig for BizBash |
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For Chicago's fourth-annual Lollapalooza, which took over Grant Park Friday through Sunday, festival organizers C3 Presents from Austin, Texas, offered a smorgasboard of choices for music—not to mention art and beer—lovers. Eight stages featured performances by 120 acts running concurrently over three days, while new distractions abounded, from Perry's, an electronica stage named after festival founder Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction, to Lederhosen's Biergarten, a popular stop for brews and brats.
The sheer size of Grant Park coupled with the diverse array of acts—mash-up wizard Girl Talk, gypsy punks Gogol Bordello, and headliners like Wilco, Radiohead, and Nine Inch Nails—could make getting the lay of the land difficult for any concertgoer. However, several helpful tools were on hand, such as pocket-sized official schedules, a centrally located information tower, and hordes of volunteers holding "Fest Info—Ask Me Now" signs. This is the first time Lollapalooza has sold out all three days in Chicago, with crowds upwards of 75,000 attending each day.
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Lollapalooza, Perry Farrell, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails, Going Green, Whole Foods, AT&T, PlayStation, Dell |
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