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Published: August 11th 2009
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Lollapalooza Hi! I'm new to writing a blog, so it might be really strangely formatted. I wanted to keep in touch with a bunch of people, but I know if I had to tell the same story over and over again it would get a worse telling each time. Normally that's ok, because I'm not really talking about anything special, but this is actually worth telling well. So I thought I'd tell it once, and make it a good telling!
So, I went with Matt and a bunch of his friends. We spent most of the time there with his friend Nick and his little brother Mike. We also hung out with some other friends but we didn't get to see them as much. We all stayed at a really nice hotel about a mile from Grant Park, which we did make the mistake of walking the first two nights. They all take Lollapalooza very seriously and we had like a full day schedule of bands to see. Each day I was surprised by who I liked the best. I made a cute little chart with the bands we saw and the order we saw them in
(so teachery).
Friday we got there really early to wait in line to get into Grant Park. It was really exciting to go in. Grant Park is enormous, and there were 6 different stages, and tents set up with stuff all around. It started raining while we were still in line going in. Thankfully, we had some very lovely ponchos to wear all day. People without ponchos were miserable - freezing and drenched. It literally rained all day until the last show. Then it stopped. Sometimes it was drizzling, sometimes it was POURING! I was pretty happy in my poncho, and nice and dry. The surprise band I loved on Friday was Manchester Orchestra. They were great. Fleet Foxes was also fun, but I think the best band of the day was definitly Machester. Kings of Leon was ok, not great, and we got stuck in a really crowded part in one area and I freaked. Matt did this human shield kind of thing with his body, which was extremely effective and the rest of it was fine. At the end of the day we were all exhausted. The rain meant that we literally did not sit at all
because of the mud. We got back to the hotel, got some food and all crashed pretty quickly.
Saturday we got a later start, which was great, but gave me the false impression that I was well rested and ready to party all day. It was really hot that day, but we were all so excited it wasn't raining that we started drinking a bit early. Not much, we just had stopped pounding water, which was a mistake. The boys were fine, but I started blacking out in the middle of Arctic Monkeys. We were all the way in front, so I had to tear through the crowd to get out. I literally pushed through the crowd like a stampeding elephant and collapsed near the fence by the sign language people. Thankfully, Matt followed me and got me water and stuff. It was a major buzzkill. Not as bad as the guy we saw who may have died on Friday, but people were dropping like flies for various reasons. Mostly due to heat. Matt and I had to separate from his friends at that point, so we found good places to stay for the next few bands - places
where I would get lots of air, and we would still be able to see and hear well. We had a great time at Animal Collective. We had a really good place to stand, and the show was amazing. For Tool, we met up with my sister's friends Will, Jenn Claire, and Devon. It was another great place to stand, and we had a great time. It was fun to see them there. We met up with Matt's friends, and on the way back to the hotel we went to get Chicago pizza. I didn't make it really (still not 100 %), so I got a cab and went back to the hotel in the middle of the meal. I was so upset! I had wanted Chicago pizza for two days and kept missing it.
Sunday. I was totally prepared for Sunday. I had learned lessons from the previous two days - sobriety and keep granola bars handy. I drank massive amounts of water on Sunday. All day long, and stayed very sober until Snoop Dogg. It worked. I felt great and the day was awesome. Kaiser Chiefs were by far the best of the day! They put on a great show. Vampire Weekend was a bit lame, in my opinion, not the best venue for them. Snoop Dogg was hilarious, and Jane's Addiction was nuts, and Joe Perry was the guest star. It was great, and we were finally smart enough to not walk a mile home after standing all day. We took the bus and actually had enough energy to have fun after. I even got Chicago pizza! It was delicious.
Anyway. Lollapalooza was awesome! I definitely learned some things for my next Lollapalooza....snacks, comfy shoes, ponchos, LOTS of water. I hope I didn't give you too much detail! I'm in Minnesota visiting Ken now, and I woke up early to write this! Off to explore the Twin Cities!!!
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cherylrw
Cheryl Weiss
sounds like you are having an absolute blast! enjoy it while you can!