Lollapalooza 2019: Inside Guest-Focused Brand Activations from Brands Like Pepsi and Cupcake Winery

CHICAGO—Juggernaut music festival Lollapalooza returned to Chicago's Grant Park August 1 to 4. The festival saw mercifully mild weather compared to the heavy rains and searingly high temperatures festivalgoers had experienced in previous years. But in the immediate aftermath of the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting—and amid two more mass shootings that took place in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend—organizers made an effort to step up security. As such, the police presence was more robust than ever before.

Other aspects of the festival continued as normal, from a musical lineup that included the likes of Kacey Musgraves and Ariana Grande to sponsor activations that focused on providing guest perks. Brands such as Toyota and Pepsi wooed music fans with whimsical tropes such as a pop-up pool party and a rainbow they could lounge in. Other brands offered customized experiences within the festival: Cupcake Winery doled out frozen drinks garnished with guests' foamy self-portraits, for example. Meanwhile, American Eagle led visitors to different "mood rooms" based on their responses to a music-theme question. Keep scrolling to see how these brands and more grabbed music fans' attention on the mile-long festival grounds.