The Lollapalooza music festival kicks off for its 20th anniversary this upcoming weekend (August 5-7) at Chicago’s Grant Park. Unfortunately for those of you who haven’t bought tickets yet, it appears as if you’re out of luck. Never fear, however, thanks to the streaming powers of YouTube, who will be providing a webcast of the event for those of you who won’t be able to make it.
On the YouTube.com/Lollapalooza channel, there will be feeds from the four stages, and, according to the YouTube blog, the webcast will last for the entirety of the festival. YouTube is even getting in on the celebration a little earlier by featuring some of the bands that will be appearing at Grant Park:
…we’ve been featuring video premieres from some of the biggest names playing the festival/webcast. On Monday, the Foo Fighters unveiled their affecting “Garage Tour” short film, which follows the band as they play intimate shows in people’s garages across the country. (Warning: the first vignette might make you cry.) Today, we feature headliners My Morning Jacket. We’ll have more premieres from bands playing the webcast through the week; keep checking back to youtube.com/music.
YouTube’s Lollapalooza page features the bands that will take part in the YouTube webcast, and judging by the list, it shouldn’t disappoint, even if you can see these performances in person. Included in the list are bands like the Foo Fighters, The Cars, Ween, My Morning Jacket, and Coldplay.
Here’s a screenshot of YouTube’s list of participating bands:
To celebrate their involvement with the webcast, My Morning Jacket debuted a new video on YouTube for the song, “Holdin On To Black Metal,” which we’ve embedded:
As indicated, for those of you who want to attend but haven’t purchased your tickets yet, the secondary market appears to be your only option, provided a YouTube webcast isn’t sufficient. All of the ticket listing at the official Lollapalooza site have “Sold Out” next to them. Granted, you could probably buy them from scalpers at the event, but you’ll have to pay what the market is asking, and it’s doubtful face value will be the amount.
With that in mind, you can always curl up with your favorite device and live vicariously through YouTube’s Lollapalooza webcast. The fun starts this Friday at 1:30 pm, Central time. The first act to be shown will be The Vaccines. Simply navigate to the page in question and enjoy the show. Don’t forget your lighters.