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Kenzie Shultz of Girl Tones brings the noise to the BMI Stage at Lollapalooza in Chicago on July 31, 2025.
Under a warm summer sky, hundreds of thousands of music lovers packed Chicago’s Grant Park 20 years after it settled in the city, an anniversary marked not only by its sprawling lineup of more than 170 artists, but also by the multitudes of fans that return year after year.
One of the many fans was Daniel De La Cruz, who is from Bolingbrook in suburban Chicago.
He attended Lollapalooza eight times and has seen artists such as Arctic Monkeys, Lorde and Paul McCartney.
“I guess the best thing about Lolla is that you always see big artists and you don’t have to pay that much,” said De La Cruz.
The festival began in 1991 and was spread across 20 cities in both the United States and Canada, featuring popular music groups of the time. The rock band Nine Inch Nails was part of the bill in the festival’s inception, the electronic duo Daft Punk played in 2007, Chance The Rapper in 2017 and the K-Pop group TWICE pe
rformed this year, to name a few.
It was previously held for two days before extending to three in 2006, and now for four in 2016. The festival was cancelled a few times due to financial insufficiency in the years 1998 and 2004. It wasn’t until 2005 when the current model for the festival was created, which led to its current success.
This year the festival opened on Thursday, July 31 and runs through Sunday, Aug. 3.
For Aldair Hernandez, who is from Indianapolis, it’s now his third year attending.
While he was excited to see Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter, who are headlining over the weekend, he saw Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande in previous years.
He attended on his own, but because of the welcoming environment at the festival, he’s able to make new friends there.
“I like that experience here, it gets me out of my zone,” Hernandez said.
Temperatures through the duration of the event were expected to reach the mid-70s, with the weather being mostly sunny.
Hundreds of thousands of people come to the festival annually as it’s one the city’s largest events.
Last year, the event produced more than $440 million for Chicago.
Artists such as Olivia Rodrigo, TWICE, T-Pain, Korn, Bôa, Doechii, Xdinary Heroes and DJO were some of the many artists who came to perform at Lollapalooza.
The successful format of the festival, along with the multi-genre lineup, became the basis for similar events such as Coachella.
Girls Tones, an alternative rock duo from Scottsville, Kentucky, stopped by to perform at the festival at both the BMI stage and Toyota Music Den, which are both near Buckingham Fountain. It’s their first time performing at Lollapalooza.
The duo consists of siblings Kenzie and Laila Crowe, classically trained musicians from Kentucky who play guitar and drums.
As the group entered the stage, they were met with loud applause before commencing the first song of the set.
They got to perform twice due to another artist dropping from the lineup.
“It was intense,” Laila said. “It took a second to recover a little bit,” regarding the double performance.
A little more than a hundred people were both on the pavement and on the grass cheering along as they delivered aggressive riffs and booming drums.
On the second time around, performing at the second stage, Laila said it felt “a little more intimate and real time.” This was because the Toyota Music Den doesn’t have a barricade, unlike the BMI stage.
With their latest single, titled “Got It,” they came to make a statement to the Chicago audience, which was well received by those in attendance.
Kenzie’s guitar rang out with both a distorted crunch and pulsating bassline simultaneously, despite the duo not having a bassist. She said that this is due to using an octave pedal, which is an instrument tool used to simultaneously ring out a lower frequency equivalent to that of a bass.
Laila said that it was a great experience creating drum sound, having to make the sound bigger to make their tracks even crunchier.
“There’s the wider groove underneath, a quick hi-hat going and a bass drum going crazy,” said Laila.
While Kenzie and Laila were on the way to the BMI stage, they were told about previous iconic artists that performed in the same area such as Lorde and Lady Gaga, which put into perspective the
opportunity to perform at the festival.
“Hearing that just gave me goosebumps because it’s just inspiring,” Kenzie said.
FC On Friday afternoon at The Grove stage, Orla Gartland performed. She is currently on tour promoting her newest album, titled “Everybody Needs A Hero.”
This was also the first time she performed at the iconic festival.
Having just flown into the city last night, she felt grounded and calm as she prepared for her performance.
While singing one of her songs, titled “Backseat Driver,” many were jumping and singing along with the chorus, with the phrase “La-la-la la-la-la la-la-la-la-la.”
“I was so humbled by, like, how much people got into that. You never know at a festival like this, like, who actually knows your music,” Gartland said.
One of her tunes that has a different significance after release is “Why Am I Like This.” The tune, first created in 2019, was featured in the Netflix romance series “Heartstopper,” which came out in 2022.
She said that she found it really cool how a song about her story took on a different meaning once it became a part of the series.
“So it ran away from me, but I mean that in the best possible way,” said Gartland.
Being a part of the festival, she said, was very heartwarming and special for her.
“Everyone I’ve met today has been extremely lovely and quite chill, and the whole thing feels really laid back,” Gartland said.
Eddie and The Getaway passionately play onstage at Lollapalooza on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025.
Performing at the BMI stage was “Eddie And The Getaway,” who played on Saturday afternoon.
Eddie Eberle, who’s the frontman, felt excitement in the days leading up to the festival performance and still remained with the same feeling as he was going to see other artists perform as well.
“I mean, Lollapalooza is one of those places that you dream about as a kid, you know, playing music in your bedroom to one day play it,” Eberle said.
Currently residing in Nashville, even though he had previously performed in other areas of Illinois, it was his first time being in the city.
Songs that he played were those such as the hard rocker “Alexis Texas,” and the mid-tempo ballad “Love Myself,” which followed the aforementioned track.
The audience jumped and pumped their fists in the air with the first track and swayed to the slower, moodier second track.
One of the memorable parts of being a part of the festival for him is seeing attendees singing along to the song he performed.
Given the musical history of Nashville and Chicago, he said that what both have in common is the love of music, which was clear at Lollapalooza.
“We can all get behind a good song with a good message, and it’s just really an amazing experience,” Eberle said.
Copy edited by Vanessa Orozco
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