Lollapalooza Festival

One day I'm going to get round to going to all the festivals I want to go to, these include Benecassim, Fujirock, South By Southwest and finally Lollapalooza which has just finished over in Chicago.

Here's the wonderful Whitney Matheson's review from USAToday:

Event: Lollapalooza, Aug. 4-6 in Chicago's Grant Park
Attendance: 180,000 total

The lineup: Bands performed on eight stages, including a family-friendly "Kidz" area. Among the main attractions: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kanye West, Death Cab for Cutie, Gnarls Barkley, The Raconteurs and the Flaming Lips. Lollapalooza also marked the last scheduled performance for punk trio Sleater-Kinney, headed for an indefinite hiatus.

Onstage quotables: "I apologize beforehand if I step on your head," Flaming Lips singer Wayne Coyne told the crowd Saturday before climbing into a clear, inflatable bubble and walking on top of the audience. The same day, Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon joked that set closer Shaking Hell, released in 1983,"was probably written before you were born." During Kanye West's performance, the rapper took a moment to enjoy the sea of people and the Chicago cityscape in front of him. "See, Mom?" he said, grinning. "I told you." Patti Smith, singing in the Kidz tent, saluted late Love leader Arthur Lee with Wing and said the band was "named aptly because there was much poetry, revolution and love in the group Love."

Memorable covers: West and The Raconteurs got the crowd jumping with a cover of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy, while Gnarls reciprocated with There Is an End by Holly Golightly and The Greenhornes, two members of which make up half of The Raconteurs. The Dresden Dolls belted out Black Sabbath's War Pigs, and The Blisters — a group featuring Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy's young son, Spencer, on drums — busted out Sweet Home Alabama for an encore.

The crowd: T-shirts and shorts were the norm for this bunch, most of them falling into in the 18-34 age bracket. As the temperature rose into the high 80s, layers of clothing were shed. Some festival-goers used spray bottles and fans to beat the heat, while others climbed or sat beneath trees.

The merch: Aside from a huge array of Lollapalooza T-shirts, hats and accessories, band shirts sold for about $20 each. A Virgin Megastore tent sold performers' CDs, with Wolfmother a big seller.

There's already some performances up on YouTube:

Here's Panic! At The Disco's surprisingly good cover of Smashing Pumpkins' Tonight, Tonight;