City Officially Cancels 2020 Lollapalooza and Other Summer Events

In one of the most anti-climatic announcements, it looks like Covid-19 has taken a big bit out of the summer festival scene (via Chicago Tribune):

Summer is over in Chicago before it even began.

The city announced Tuesday it is canceling special events through Labor Day, including Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago, the Air and Water Show and the Chicago Jazz Festival to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. The city had already announced the cancellation of its summer festivals devoted to gospel, blues and house music.

Lollapalooza — Chicago’s largest music festival — typically draws 100,000 people to Grant Park for each of its four days, and it was said to be the highest revenue-generating event for the Chicago Park District last year. Festival promoter C3 Presents had not announced a lineup for the July 30-Aug. 2 event, and tickets were not for sale. More than 170 acts typically play Lollapalooza each year.

“The reality is, bringing 100,000 people en masse, in close quarters, which is what the daily head count is every single day at Lollapalooza, 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. It makes no sense,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at a news conference Tuesday.

Lightfoot said a later date for Lollapalooza was considered “and that was part of the discussion and why we delayed for so long, but it became clear that that later date probably wasn’t going to get us out of the woods, far enough away from where we are in the cycle of COVID-19 here in Chicago. So we look forward to welcoming them back next year.”