Lolla and Chicago 2016 in Bed Together

Two topics we love following have converged today. The Chicago 2016 Olympic bid will be the 'sponsor' of the main stage at Lollapalooza this year. This right is usually reserved for corporate entities that shell out big bucks to have their name plastered all over the stage. However this year, one of the sponsors, AT&T, backed out leaving a gaping hole in terms of sponsorship for Lollapalooza. As a result, Chicago 2016 will be the de facto sponsor for free.

From what we've read, it sounds like it's an innocent gesture by C3 (the company who puts on Lolla every year). However, we're going to put our cynical glasses on and read between the lines. In our mind this seems to be a classic case of you scratch our back, we'll scratch yours.

Chicago 2016 will get a ton of exposure with hundreds of thousands of 20 and 30 somethings and if Chicago wins the Olympic Bid, it's pretty clear that C3 will probably be responsible for putting on many of the events (ie- security and logistic support).

To be honest, we're fine with this. C3 has been doing a great job with Lolla and for the most part it runs very smoothly. They also were responsible for Obama's election night party/speech in Grant Park and from what we can tell (and we're not experts, just observant participants usually), they really do a good job.

Anyway, all we wanted to say was that this is a nice gesture by C3, but they stand to benefit immensely if Chicago wins the 2016 Olympic bid.