Lollapalooza rock festival to double in size
By Greg Kot
Tribune music critic
Published February 13, 2006, 1:45 PM CST
Lollapalooza will double in size when it returns to Grant Park next summer on a bigger playing field that will stretch from Hutchinson Field to the Petrillo Music Shell, organizers announced Monday.
The rock festival said it will schedule 130 artists to play eight stages over three days, Aug. 4-6. A Chicago citizens group said the event is expected to bring at least $800,000 into Chicago parks, and promoters estimated that as many as 225,000 people would attend over three days.
In its inaugural year last summer, Lollapalooza booked 60 acts on five stages over two days. It brought 65,000 fans to Grant Park and $400,000 into the Chicago Park District, and ran relatively smoothly despite sometimes oppressive summer temperatures. The event was closely scrutinized by city officials and citizens groups as a test case for staging a major rock event in a downtown park after decades in which such concerts were not often welcomed.
A Chicago citizens group, the Parkways Foundation, praised the festival for helping pay for a playground program, and is again teaming with a Texas-based corporation, Capital Sports & Entertainment and Charles Attal Presents, and Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell to return the event to Grant Park.
Charlie Jones, executive producer of Capital Sports & Entertainment, promised a more diverse roster with bigger names when the lineup is announced next month. He also said that the stage layout will be adjusted to prevent the sound-bleed issues that hampered last year's festival.
The festival's expansion has been in the works since last summer, when Park District President Tim Mitchell proclaimed the event a success and said he was willing to work with the organizers to expand the event north of Hutchinson Field and Buckingham Fountain into Butler Field, home of the Petrillo Band Shell. The fountain is again expected to remain open to the public during the festival, despite the expanded stage set-up.
Bob O'Neill, president of a citizens group, the Grant Park Conservancy, said that some of the $800,000 in funds expected from this year's show will go toward a "complete restoration" of Hutchinson Field. In addition, the event will underwrite the creation of Solti Gardens south of the Art Institute on Michigan Avenue, named after the late Chicago Symphony Orchestra conductor Georg Solti.
O'Neill said that such benefits have helped assuage nearby residents who complained about the noise from last year's festival. "You can tolerate certain things when you realize there is a great reward attached to them," he said.
