Lollapalooza finally returned from July 29th to August 1st this year after not being held in 2020 for obvious reasons. It was an interesting four days to experience and coming from someone who went all four days, it was exhausting but nonetheless one of the best times of my life.

To start off with the first day of the festival, Thursday was action-packed and an eye-opener to what the rest of the weekend would look like. On Thursday my friends and I saw Olivia O’Brien, Flo Mili, Cash Cash, Playboi Carti, Steve Aoki and Miley Cyrus. The best performance of that day was hands down Miley Cyrus or Steve Aoki. And the worst, don’t hate me, was probably Flo Mili. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a major Flo Mili fan but the mosh pits at her performance were unbearable and the heat was also another negative factor to my experience. Thursday was definitely the most exhausting day out of the four and I think it was because we saw so many people back to back and because of how excruciatingly hot it was outside.

The next day, Friday, was one of our chill days. This day we were in no rush to get to specific performances and had enough time to get to each stage while still having hour-long breaks in between. This day my friends and I saw Polo G, Roddy Ricch, Jack Harlow, and Tyler the Creator. Polo G’s was the most unbearable performance right next to Flo Mili. The amount of sweat my body produced at that stage is insane. I’ve never sweat so much in my life. I’m a fan of his music, but I definitely was not a fan of the crowd at his performance, those moshes were on another level. Roddy Ricch and Tyler probably had the best performances of the night. I’m not a huge fan of either, but just being able to go and see them live was pretty cool.

Next, Saturday, the BEST day of the entire festival. We started off the day strong by seeing the queen, miss Bia. I didn’t know a lot of her music but just seeing her live and the vibe of the crowd was the best. We also saw Trippie Redd, Megan Thee Stallion and my favorite, Post Malone. I cannot even begin to describe how phenomenal Post Malone’s performance was. I wouldn’t call myself a raging Post Malone fan but the moment he stepped on stage, I became one. He is such a great live performer and the crowd was amazing. His set production was also the best, he included MULTIPLE firework shows all throughout his performance. I can’t forget about Trippie and Megan, though. Those shows were also great. Trippie’s crowd was insane and the moshing was hectic, but for some reason I thoroughly enjoyed it. Last but not least, my queen Megan. Her song list wasn’t the best but just seeing her live gave me so much happiness!

Now lastly, Sunday, the worst day of the entire festival. When my friends and I heard that Da Baby was not longer performing, it ruined all our entire moods for the entire day. Because of that, the entire day was so lax and chill. We saw Jxdn, G Herbo, Surfaces, Rico Nasty, Brock Hampton and Young Thug. Young Thug got bumped to the headliner filling in for Da Baby and let me tell you, he sucked. First of all he was 20 minutes late, that right there pissed me off. My friends and I only stayed for 15 minutes of his performance because it was that garbage. G Herbo did bring on Chance the Rapper for a song so I guess that was the highlight of my day. We were so drained and exhausted by Sunday that we didn’t even care for half the performers.

Now let’s get onto the important stuff: food, transportation, COVID procedures and everything else.

The amount of food stands there was overwhelming, I never knew what to eat in between our breaks, and the lines were out of this world for them. As usual, the food was overpriced, but surprisingly good?

On the first day, I brought a hydration backpack but ended up switching to a fanny pack for the rest of the three days. “Why?” you may ask. Well, I have an irrational fear of my belongings getting stolen (fun fact: my friend got her phone stolen on the FIRST night), so I decided bringing a fanny pack would be better and easier for me to keep track of my phone and money. The water situation there got progressively worse each day. On the first day, they sold metal-like water bottles that barely kept anything cold for more than five minutes. On day two, they STOPPED giving caps to those water bottles because too many people threw them in the crowds. And, oh wait, it gets worse — on Saturday they started giving CANNED water in the literal shape of beer or soda cans. They did that because people started throwing the bottles because they had to caps. Spoiler alert, that didn’t stop people from throwing them. I unfortunately fell victim to getting hit with one of those during Trippie Redd’s performance.

As for transportation, my friends and I took the train down to Grant Park there and back every day. The commute there was perfectly fine but coming home? Oh my, was that a cluster. Basically, if you have claustrophobia, maybe don’t attend these because you are squished like sardines in those train cars.

And as for COVID protocols, there were none. Obviously, no one was wearing masks and yes, they did check for vaccination cards and negative COVID tests upon entering, but who’s to say those weren’t fake?

But hey, the amount of walking I did was incredible. Also, whenever my friends and I ate, we ate next to a garbage pile and sat on grass, very high class if you ask me.

Lollapalooza has made me realize a lot of things about myself. Number one, I have never truly been as dirty as I thought I have been before this. Number two, I hate being squished together in crowds. Number three, I have never sweat more in my entire life, I only used the bathrooms there ONCE because I sweated every liquid in my body out in a matter of minutes. And number four, I hate the violent mosh pits that make me almost fall onto the ground and get stampeded on. But will I go again next year? You bet.