Lollapalooza 2020 has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, although the event will be launching a week long live stream from July 20 to August 2 instead. The event had not announced an official lineup prior to this announcement, which was made by Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
This latest announcement follows the cancellation of other prominent music festivals across the country, including SXSW and Pitchfork Music Festival. Coachella and Stagecoach were both postponed until October this year, however the festival is reportedly in talks to invite performers for the 2020 edition to perform next year instead. Other prominent festivals such as Taste of Chicago, the Air and Water Show and the Chicago Jazz Festival have also been cancelled due to the pandemic.
“The reality is, bringing 100,000 people in mass, in close quarters, which is what the daily headcount is every single day at Lollapzlooza, bringing that many people from all over the country downtown in Grant Park every single day, we might as well just light ourselves on fire,” Lightfoot said in a statement to local news outlets. “It makes no sense given what we know about how this disease spreads, which is close intimate contact extended over 10 minutes.”
Lollapalooza is typically held over four days at Grant Park in Chicago, where it typically hosts an audience of 400,000 and sells out annually. The event originally began in 1991, where it was organized by Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Farrell, where it ran until 1997, before a revived edition came back to the scene in 2003.
Last year’s festival held performances by indie rock outfit Tame Impala, hip hop artist Childish Gambino and indie rock band The Strokes. The festival has also expanded internationally, holding events in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, France and Sweden.
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