Amid widespread cancellations and postponements across the live entertainment industry, Chicago’s Lollapalooza has yet to decide its 2020 fate.
Currently, Lollapalooza is slated to return to Grant Park from July 30 to August 2. Around the end of March, Lollapalooza organizers usually reveal the festival lineup, however, due to the uncertainty of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, organizers decided to hold off at this time, noting that they are staying in close contact with local officials and will alert fans when the time is right.
On Tuesday, organizers revealed that festivalgoers will have to wait a little longer, as they expect to make a decision regarding the 2020 event by the end of May.
“We remain in touch with our partners in the City of Chicago about this year’s Lollapalooza,” the festival said in an Instagram post. “As the festival is still several months away, we are taking careful consideration to work through our options. We are confident that we will have enough information to make a definitive decision about the path forward by the end of May.”
The post went on to note that “Chicago is our home, and we will continue to remain optimistic about Lollapalooza 2020.”
Last week, Illinois that “everybody needs to think seriously about cancelling large events,” noting that “until we have a vaccine, which is months and months away, I would not risk having large groups of people getting together anywhere.”
The following day, he clarified his statements, saying that he was “merely suggesting that people contemplate what if because we need to follow what the science and the doctors tell us.”
“I don’t want to project what next week or the week after would look like,” Prtizker said.
While Pritzer signed a stay-at-home order through April 30, that deadline may be extended as the coronavirus pandemic continues. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that the festival remains “on schedule,” though summer programs are under discussion. Lightfoot noted that it is “too soon to start talking about events that are happening in July and August.”
If organizers did cancel or postpone this year’s event, they wouldn’t be alone. Hundreds of festivals across the country have either been postponed to the fall – including Coachella, Stagecoach, Bonnaroo – or outright cancelled 2020 fests – like Ultra, Firefly, and Essence. See our full list of updating festivals affected due to COVID-19 here.
