My First Lollapalooza [Diary Of An XRT Intern]

August 4, 2012 3:36 PM

photo credit: Jack Edinger courtesy of Lollapalooza

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The weekend is over and it seemed to go by so fast, almost too fast. I used to not be a person that would look forward to Lollapalooza weekend, until now. After working and experiencing Lollapalooza, I see why this festival sells out in minutes the moment the artist lineup is posted. This year was a blast, the music was great everyone had smiling faces and nice sunglasses tans, even after the first day. For me, I was really looking forward to seeing Black Sabbath! When I was younger and just starting to listen to real music i started listening to all sorts of stuff, and then my dad showed me the album “Paranoid” and i was hooked every since. On Friday night Black Sabbath was one of the headliners at the Bud Light stage and i wasn’t going to miss it for the world. And let me tell you Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi can still rock out. This by far was my favorite show of the weekend and Ozzy seemed to have the energy he had back in the good old days. They played everything i wanted to hear, it’s something that I will never forget.

On Saturday, I was scheduled to work in the evening, However on my journey downtown the worst storm of the summer decided to show up and made things a little damp to say the least. At about 6pm. After the monsoon that raged through the festival grounds and a complete evacuation, the festival reopened and the party continued, well at least for some, i had to mozy on over to the XRT tent and guard our stuff. So Saturday was eventful and a little chaotic but it all happened before I got to work.

On Sunday I made sure to get there a little bit earlier than right before my shift was to start. When i got there i went and saw Gary Clark Jr. shred the guitar, at the Playstation stage. Not really knowing much about Gary Clark Jr. I was very impressed on how this man can play the guitar, I then ventured over to the Google Play stage, which was probably my favorite stage because it was smaller and tucked away under the trees so it was nice and shaded. Then I headed over to the XRT lounge to start my shift.

Working the fest wasn’t bad at all, I had a blast! I love talking to people and Lolla had some very cool, and interesting people to talk too. Plus I got to run around the fest and hand everyone free XRT visors! I was able to hear a little bit of some of the other bands which was nice. I got to see a little bit of Of Monsters & Men, which was great, that band can really play a show, And when Florence and The Machine came on, i don’t think i have seen a crowd that big in my entire concert/festival going career, They played a fantastic show. At the end of the night Justice closed the Bud Light stage, everyone there was on cloud nine, everyone was going wild for Justice.

All and all i can now say that i have been to Lollapalooza and i am looking forward to seeing whats in store for next year, this beautiful festival in the middle of this beautiful city is something else. It was mind blowing to see how Grant Park turns into a festival and having the city surround the fest it really just takes youir breathe away and makes you feel pretty awesome to be apart of the experience. I can not thank WXRT enough for letting me work and have such a great time this weekend! Thank you XRT and thank you Lollapalooza! Here are some links to some of the shows from over the weekend for those of you who may not have been there with all of us.

Red Hot Chili Peppers- Under the Bridge