Lollapalooza Expanding to 4 Days for 25th Anniversary

Lollapalooza is turning twenty five and adding to the annual party to celebrate. To mark a quarter-century of music festivals, Lollapalooza organizers announced Wednesday that the annual fest in Grant Park would be expanding to four days from it's traditional three. To accommodate it's growth from the weekend, the music selling into Thursday because who doesn't want to avoid teenagers in high-waisted shorts and neon for an extra day of the year?

In a statement, founder Perry Farrell said: “It’s our 25th Anniversary and we wanted to do something really special and different for our fans. There’s a lot of really great music coming out in 2016; with the abundance of talent that wanted to help us celebrate 25 years we got to thinking…‘How are we going to fit all those great artists in one weekend?’ Then we thought about what a special day Thursday has become. When the party can’t wait for the weekend, the movers and shakers make it happen on Thursday! So, we’ve put together an entire additional day of music to celebrate our milestone year. It’s going to be a fantastic party!”

To be honest, this is the most unnecessary thing in Chicago since red light and speed cameras. Really? A third day of music to give the suburbanites an extra reason to ride the Metra? Last year's lineup hardly had enough really good and exciting acts to fill out the three days and it's not like adding another full day of artists is going to disperse any of the already overcrowded existing days. But alas, as with the new New Year's Eve celebration that comes modeled after NYC's Times Square and the addition of hotels and an arena in the south loop for DePaul, it looks like this is just one more move by Rahm Emanuel and the city's hegemony to pack as much profit into the Loop as they can. 

Lollapalooza 2016 will take place Thursday, July 28 and continue through Sunday, July 31. Four-day General Admission tickets will be available for $335 (including fees) and single day General Admission tickets will be available for $120 (including fees) beginning Spring 2016.