Friday was Olivia Rodrigo day at Lollapalooza as the festival opened for Day 2 in Chicago’s lakefront Grant Park.
Rodrigo was the T-Mobile mainstage headliner to close out the night, on the opposite end from metal band Korn on the Bud Light stage.
There was a sea of Rodrigo’s signature purple at the T-Mobile by noon on Friday. Some of her most dedicated fans, many wearing purple cowboy hats, made it a point to line up early to get the best view.
Apsen Fonseca and her sister, who were standing near the stage, took the train in from Northwest Indiana for the 15-year-old’s first concert experience.
“I’ve wanted to see her since I was little but we never got the chance to,” she said.
Rodrigo last played Chicago at the United Center in support of her album “Guts” in the spring of 2024.
Fonseca spent weeks hand-painting her jeans with Rodrigo song lyrics and decorating sunglasses with beads that spell “Guts spilled.” She hopes the singer performs her favorite songs, “Teenage Dream” and “good 4 u.”
Sophie Chang, 17, said she’s grown up with Rodrigo. She watched her on Disney shows like “Bizaardvark” and “High School Musical” and said it’s shocking that someone she feels so close to has billions of music streams.
“What I really like about her is she doesn’t do collabs,” Chang said. “It’s just her.”
Chang came to the festival from Los Angeles with her mom as part of her 17th birthday gift. They’ve explored the city as well, including a river cruise.
“This is really amazing,” she said. “I love music, and I always wanted to go to a music festival.”
Also on the bill
Other artists playing Friday include Djo (aka DePaul theater grad Joe Keery, aka Steve on “Stranger Things”), Bleachers, T-Pain, Wallows, Foster the People, Flipturn, Isoxo, Amaare and Gigi Perez. The DJ and music producer Knock2 and Swedish rapper Bladee are fest closers on smaller stages.
Chicago’s own Chance the Rapper is a surprise addition to the weekend’s lineup, with the festival announcing early Friday that he would take the Perry’s Stage at 5:50 p.m. Saturday for a 15-minute hometown set. Chance is expected to release a new album, “Star Line,” on Aug. 15.
Korn, a metal band that formed in California in 1993, is the outlier at a 2025 Lolla with few rock ‘n’ roll artists on the bill — or few artists older than their 30s. On the south end of the park Friday afternoon, none of the young fans the Tribune spoke with were familiar with Korn’s music. Or knew the band’s name.
“Who?,” answered Elisa Tan when asked about the band. She was at Lollapalooza from St. Louis with a trio of friends, none of them familiar with the other Friday headliner. “Sorry, no.”
Clearing the air
Air quality alerts continued in Chicago on Friday, with the air rated as unhealthy for sensitive groups due to wildfire smoke across the Midwest from fires in Canada and elsewhere. Still, the skies were breezy and noticeably clearer than on Thursday’s opening day, when the city’s skyline at times was barely visible, and that status improved to moderate by later in the day.
According to reports in the Tribune, the fine particulate matter from wildfire smoke can cause irritation of the eyes and respiratory system, with symptoms mimicking allergies or the common cold.
Lollapalooza 2025: What to know about the 4-day music festival at Grant Park
Sharing with Gigi Perez
As soon as Gigi Perez began playing her hit “Sailor Song” mid-afternoon on the T-Mobile stage, the thousands in the crowd stood up, pulled out their phones and began chanting the words.
“Oh, won’t you kiss me on the mouth and love me like a sailor,” Perez sang. “And when you get a taste, can you tell me what’s my flavor.”
Toward the end of the song, she continued strumming and spoke to the crowd, which steadily grew throughout her set. She said music reminds her of the good in the world, which is more necessary now than ever. Perez, who is gay, said she wasn’t able to fully express her sexuality as child, recounting an experience where an arena of people “were praying against my right to love.”
“Let’s just love each other, and use our voices,” she said. “Let’s put pressure on the administration, because they’re not going to (expletive) win.”
The 25-year-old singer-songwriter released her debut album, “At the Beach, in Every Life,” earlier this year. It’s largely a tribute to her late sister. “Sailor Song” went viral on TikTok and climbed the Billboard charts.
“It is about my experiences with grief and how that’s affected the way that I love, and where love has met me in my grief,” Perez said.
“For those of you who have experienced grief, it changes everything for you,” she continued. “In the past few years, I’ve just been learning what love looks like, and what we’re intrinsically worthy of despite our grief and our failures.”
Perez also played the haunting song “Normalcy,” which features a lengthy guitar solo. “And normalcy’s boring, I am over with that,” she sang in the chorus.
Shopping at Lolla
Over at the merch tents near Buckingham Fountain, hundreds of festival-goers spent Friday afternoon weaving in and out of brand activity pop-ups and waiting in line for merchandise — hats, jewelry, posters and more.
Johnnie Davis and Maddie Greenfield are roommates at the University of Central Oklahoma. They said they really enjoyed the band Cage the Elephant’s performance Thursday, but don’t have a plan of who they want to see Friday. They’re having fun checking out all parts of the festival, particularly the Tito’s Chillmaster 5000 lounge, and choosing merch — a T-shirt and crop top.
“I think they’re doing a really good job with crowd control this year,” said Greenfield, 21, of Aurora. “Last year it was so busy … it was really bad with too many people in a small area.”
Chicago’s own Ravyn
Over on the Lakeshore Stage, Ravyn Lenae performed her own viral pop R&B song “Love Me Not,” which rose to the top 10 of the Billboard chart, in the afternoon. Lenae is a Chicago native who said she’s long dreamed of performing at Lollapalooza.
“It’s hard to see you, but I wish you were right here,” she sings. “Oh, it’s hard to leave you when I get you everywhere.”
The song’s success, she said, is a testament for anyone with dreams.
“There were moments where I doubted, where I got in my head, where I thought nobody wanted to hear from me, nobody cared,” she said. “But then I had to tell myself, I care, I love it. I’m important, and I’m being something.”
