Brazil’s edition of Lollapalooza, the iconic music festival, returns to São Paulo for the second year in a row. Based on last year’s success, the event is more massive than before — expanding to three days at the end of March. The weekend blowout corrals together more than 60 musical acts, both international and Brazilian, to share five stages at the city’s historic Jockey Club.
This year’s most anticipated band is Pearl Jam, the titans of grunge rock — who cap the festival on Sunday night. Other headliners include The Killers and deadmau5 on Friday; and The Black Keys and Queens Of The Stone Age on Saturday. You can see the complete lineup of artists at the Lollapalooza Brasil site.
Lollapalooza expects 50% more fans
The Brazilian promoter, GEO, estimates that over 200,000 music lovers will attend the three-day spectacle (an almost 50% increase over last year’s crowd of 135,000). Previously, São Paulo didn’t have a big festival — unusual for such an immense, cosmopolitan city. Lollapalooza brings to the capital not only international names in rock, but collects, in a single venue, a number of popular national acts from various genres.
This year adds Side Shows do Lollapalooza — parallel concerts at the Cine Joia in São Paulo. And, to the north, Rio de Janeiro will not be forgotten either. Lollapalooza will present some of the festival’s hottest acts at the Circo Voador in Lapa. According to GEO’s president, Leo Ganem:
The concept of occupying the city with music and promoting special concerts during Lollapalooza is something that happens in every edition of the festival around the world. We’ll have a schedule that will keep fans in the mood — enjoying good music.
Lollapalooza itself has a rich history. Created by Perry Farrell, the leader of Jane’s Addiction, as a farewell tour for the band — it morphed into a definitive statement of the indie aesthetic in the 90s. Now the event is one the largest music festivals in the world and, besides São Paulo, is hosted in Chicago, London, and Tel Aviv.
The Low-down on Lollapalooza
Photo: Esper/I Hate Flash
