My (first) Lollapalooza experience

On Saturday, I went to Lollapalooza - the first time I'd ever gone to a big music fest like that. I decided to buy a single day ticket for Saturday because I really wanted to see the Go!Team and Gnarls Barkley. After I bought the ticket, I looked at the schedule and read about the various bands and was surprised to find I had the whole day pretty much filled!

The reality went pretty much as planned. I got there around 11:30 a.m. and left about 10:00 p.m. In between, I managed to see (part or all of):

Tone Deff
Rainer Maria
Cold War Kids
Go! Team
Calexico
Gnarls Barkley
Smoking Popes
Common
Flaming Lips
Thievery Corporation
Kanye West

The whole day was pretty fantastic. I added new bands to my "must have" list; I heard older bands that I hadn't realized I like (!); I heard songs beyond the one "I know that one!" from a couple of bands. The best, though, was Gnarls Barkley - what a performance!!! Their hour on stage made the price of admission more than worth while, and I'm so happy I got to see them. (Note: dancing with a Camelbak on is 1) awkward and 2) possibly very odd looking)

I thought the whole festival was well done. Yeah, the food and drink was pricey, but reasonably so - no more than Taste or a local street festival and, in some cases, less. There were plenty of fountains for refilling water bottles. The crowd was fairly friendly and very orderly, which made for a very pleasant day.

The only sign that I may be a little old for Lollapalooza? (Other than the fact that 90% of the crowd was younger than me...) I was exhausted on Sunday and spent most of it lying on the couch and/or snoozing!

Will I go next year? Definitely. I'll just make sure I have a day to rest up afterward.