LOLLAPALOOZIN!!!!!

I love music. Ever type. I have gone through my middle school metal phase, Broadway show tunes in 4th grade, and can even find it in my self to absolutely love country. When I heard about Lollapalooza, an international music festival that has played in Santiago, Chile for the past few years, I knew I had to go. And, I must say that the outrageous bracelet price was worth every penny.


The weekend of March 19th and 20th, 15 exchange students rented two apartments in downtown Santiago to have the weekends of our lives. We all rolled into town Friday afternoon to prep for the days ahead. The first stop was the Constanera Center to pick up our bracelets for the festival and grocery shop for the weekend because food was going to be outrageously priced inside of the festival. Of course, my Chilean cell phone had to be stolen on the subway ride back home but what happens, happens. Now my biggest concern was not to get lost that weekend because no one would be able to reach me.  After claiming beds and chowing down on some mac and cheese because none of us could really cook, we headed out to a disco to dance the night away.

The next morning, morning after a healthy breakfast of scrambled eggs, jam, and bread, us girls dolled up with metallic tattoos and sunscreen headed out for the first day at the festival without the boys who were to lazy to get up early. We entered the festival with relative ease by passing through the empty families only line by 'accident' and "oops, we don't speak spanish". It was roughly 1 in the afternoon and already boiling hot. The first major band we were all dying to see was Walk The Moon, who went on stage later in the afternoon. As we walked through the festival, I, for the first time, took in the size and scale of the show going on around me. With 4 different massive stages, multiple interactive art and game areas, there was no way to get bored. We went over to the Samsung Stage where Walk the Moon would be playing and waited for the next two hours and managed to get front row for the other performances from Candlebox and The Formidable Joy that played before them. The crowd by that time had grown considerably and I was being slammed into the fence so hard that the next day I had bruises along my ribcage. Then Walk the Moon came out and everyone went wild. The set was amazing and so full of energy and happiness. I can say that I touched Nicholas Petricca. One thing that made me love Walk the Moon even more after the weekend was over, is that he was one of the only artists that I saw address the crowd in Spanish. Most of the artists and bands at Lollapalooza were from the US and almost all of them only addressed the crowd in English, but I greatly admired Walk the Moon for reaching out and trying their best to speak in Spanish to their fans.

After Walk the Moon's set finished, we all forced our way out of the mosh pit and over to the fence line, where I spotted a security guard who I had waved at during the performance leaning on the railing. He turned out to be from the US and went on tours with his company and the bands during all of Lollapalooza's international tour. We begged him to see if there was any way that we could meet the band, but all he had was bad news for us saying that they had just left to for the VIP area. However, he was kind enough to let us write them a note that he would pass along and hand out greatly appreciated free water. The next performer to come on stage was Halsey, who killed it, but we were all to tired to stand and jump around, so we enjoyed her vocals from sitting in the grass under the trees.

The sun had set and the big names were coming out. We left Halsey a bit early to catch, what I would now say the best act of all of Lollapalooza, Jack U. Jack U is a DJ set combined of Diplo and Skrillex some of the best artists in the electronic music industry. They had us all jumping and screaming along. While us girls were pushing through the crowd, we ran into Alex, Lennart, Peik, and Mathilde. Joining up with them, we climbed shoulders and threw our hand in the sky to Jack U's madness.
Before Jack U wrapped up, we made out way out of the crowd and over to Itau stage where the legend Eminem would be closing down the night. Having a few minutes to spare before he came on, we all sat down on the pavement and rested out tired feet.

When he finally came out, we went crazy. He opened with the classics and from there moved into his more recent songs off his latest album. I must also say, I don't every think I have heard more f-words said in such a short period of time. Another funny occurrence that I began to notice more is that, while we are all gringos in Chile and used to being stared at, at the festival staring at us for the first time proved to be helpful. Because the artists, for the most part, only speak in English, when they would say "put your hands in the air" or "I want to hear you scream" there would be a couple second of lag time between when the artist would yell and the crowd would react. Of course, me and my friends would get it from the first seconds because we speak English, so the Chileans seemed to play a little looking game. First look at stage, look at the gringos, look back at stage, and then do exactly what we do. We called it the "Gringo Gawk". Once Eminem finished with "I'm Not Afraid" and a resounding firework show, we made our way home and ate for the first time in 12 hours a healthy meal of mac and cheese and bread. We then all then collapsed into bed and crashed.

Day two commenced similar to day one with breakfast and heading to the festival at around 1. We started off the day by screaming along to lyrics to "Stressed Out" with Twenty One Pilots, who killed their performance. When they wrapped up, the girl group headed over to the merch stand to see if there was anything of over priced value to pick up, but they had sold out of literally every the first day. From there we head over to the Samsung Stage again to see ODEZSA, another awesome DJ. I had known a few of their songs prior, but afterward I was a much bigger fan. Next Marina and the Diamonds came on and sang like an angel. I was surprised by how well known she is here in Chile because her crowd was packed. When Marina finished, I caught another glace of the security guard from yesterday, so we made our way over to say hello. After the free water was dolled out, he told us he had a surprise for us. Walk the Moon had got out note and had given him the set list to give to us!!!  We thanked him profusely and chatted for a bit longer and that is when the hunger hit. It had already been a long day and from how exhausted I was from yesterday, I caved, along side Amanda, and we bought ridiculously over priced sandwiches, which I must say, were rather delicious.

We then left the Samsung section and headed over to the VTR Stage to take a seat in the grass and chill for a bit before Mumford and Sons came out. During this time, the group of all 15 exchange students managed to reform and move as a cohesive unit for the rest of the night. After resting our poor tired legs for as long as possible, we grudgingly got up and made out way into the crowd. While pushing though people I ran into to couple from school which was super cool. Mumford and Sons was spectacular and had a completely different energy than any other performances that I had seen in the past two days. From there, we moved stages over to Itau to watch the final act of weekend, Florence and the Machine. Florence came out on to the stage like the real free spirit she is makeup free, hair flowing, and shoeless. She danced around belting out her big hits and closed down the night with an amazing fire works show.

The weekend came to a close and we all headed home and packed up on Monday morning. That was the last big summer shebang for me as school had started and the free days to travel had come to a close. Spending time with friends, listening to great music, and making memories definitely put the Lolla Weekend as one of the most memorable times here in Chile. Now, the only goal is to see Lollapalooza in the 5 other countries it tours!