The first day of what was supposed to be a great start to a weekend filled with music in downtown Chicago had ended up being anything but.

Bad weather cut the first night of the Lollapalooza festival short when a dangerous storm arrived in the area causing the last remaining performances to be cancelled. The annual festival in Chicago was forced to evacuate Grant Park as sudden downpour forced a mass evacuation around 9:10 p.m. Due to the weather emergency, those behind Lollapalooza encouraged all those who were attending to quickly find shelter away from the site.

One of those halted performances was Lorde who was set to headline. She later tweeted her devastation saying that she was “gutted,” and that “they’ve told us we can’t play.” According to Lorde, the show that she planned for the night was going to be spectacular. She continued by expressing that she was looking into a way to make up for the change of plans.

Lorde released a new music video earlier today for the closing track from Melodrama titled, “Perfect Places.”

Thursday’s lineup also included Muse, Lil Uzi Vert, and Porter Robinson who were all scheduled to close out the first night. English rock band, Muse, shared an Instagram post of the band on stage promising fans that they would return to Chicago “as soon as we can” The lead singer for Muse, Matt Bellamy tweeted that, “City/police made us leave the stage tonight 3 songs in at #Lollapalooza,” he tweeted. “Due to weather/lightning. Nightmare!”

The bad storm wasn’t the only thing to stir up the first day. Drama came earlier in the afternoon when Liam Gallagher from Oasis had suddenly ended his set early when he walked off stage without saying a word. Gallagher would later cite the reason behind the sudden walkout, a vocal strain from a gig he had played the night before.

Schedule for Lollapalooza is set to continue Friday with cooler yet perfect conditions with performances by Jidenna, Blink 182 and The Killers. 

Photo credit: Sharon Alagana