A Gen Z Intern’s First Lollapalooza Experience 2023

Hello! I’m Alexis, a blog contributor intern, and I’m here to share my experience at my first ever Lollapalooza! I attended the first two days and will be highlighting my top moments and sharing some helpful tips and essentials you will need if you’re planning to attend next year!

Lollapalooza Day 1

Before I begin with day one, I give people props for attending all four days because it can get exhausting very quick! On the first day, I went with my friends to see NewJeans perform for the first time ever in America! 

NewJeans is a K-Pop group that is new-ish, and they’ve been becoming more popular for their fun pop and R&B inspired music. The group performed at the T-Mobile stage, which is the biggest stage at Lollapalooza. It was so fun to watch, and their choreography was top-tier! Even the workers and security were dancing along! The performance delivered and there was so many people there to watch them, it felt really cool to see them perform their first show in America!

My friends and I then made our way to the House of Blues for the Lollapalooza Aftershows. We saw Sabrina Carpenter and her performance was too good! Seeing her up close had me a bit starstruck because she is so beautiful and her vocals were amazing! If you ever need songs to relate to about getting over someone, or you just want to get into your feels, I definitely recommend listening to her!

Lollapalooza Day 2

The second day at Lollapalooza was way more chill and relaxing. At this point, I was already exhausted and had no idea how I was about to do it all over again. For this day, my friend and I headed to the festival a little later to see Sabrina Carpenter again, but this time for her Lollapalooza set.

Since we literally only had five hours of sleep, the sleepiness and tiredness was creeping onto us. But, we still had to go support our girl Sabrina and sing with her one last time! We went to the Coinbase stage and I will say that this stage is not placed in the best area. It’s placed where there’s stairs right next to it, so there’s hundreds of people leaving and going, making it a bit overwhelming.

However, that did not stop us from having a good time! We went a bit farther back and made our own little spot and we sang with Sabrina and cheered her on! Her performance just got even better with the choreography and her outfit…..she was giving life-size Barbie doll! 

After Sabrina’s performance, we walked around and saw the pop-up shops they had. We went to the about-face pop-up, which is Halsey‘s makeup brand, where they were doing free makeovers! We also passed by the Hulu pop-up and Dunkin’ Donuts where they gave everyone some cool photo opportunities.

Also Read: The Festival Edit: What To Wear To Lollapalooza 2023

Helpful Tips, Advice, and Essentials

The time that you go and leave Lollapalooza is actually very important! If you go right when the festival starts, you’ll be stuck waiting an hour or two just to get in. If you also leave at the very last minute, you might be stuck with the hundreds of other people finding an Uber or the packed CTA. 

To avoid all of this, my friends and I made a schedule to avoid going too early and leaving too late. It helps with knowing what artists you want to see, the times they’ll be on, and what stages you have to get to, because remember, it’s a lot of walking!

I would also make sure to pick a designated spot to go to in case you or a friend gets lost. It can get crowded real quick and it’s easy to get lost. The service there also isn’t always the best, making it hard to contact the people you went with, so by having this specific spot, you have a backup plan in a case of an emergency.

Staying hydrated is also very important! Lollapalooza is hot, sweaty, and you easily get dehydrated. Unfortunately, I saw people faint and feel sick, so drinking plenty of water is vital! Having a collapsible water bottle is essential! I used this one below from Amazon which literally saved my life and you’re able to refill it at the hydrating stations. 

Another essential I HIGHLY recommend is getting a clear bag! It makes getting through security a lot faster, and you don’t have to worry about your bag being too big if it’s not clear. I personally used this one below and it made my life so much easier! 

I also recommend this mini fan because you will be sweating A LOT. It definitely helped me stay cool and what’s great is that you can also use it to charge your phone!

Also Read: The Future is Pop Female Fans: Their Power and Influence

Lollapalooza was overall a fun and great experience! It definitely does get tiring so I would suggest lots of rest before going and taking all the breaks you need in-between! I do think it’s what you make out of it and my friends and I had fun, we enjoyed the live music, sang our hearts outs, and danced until we couldn’t no more!