2 days of music in a big park? Yes, please! My ears and feet are desperate for some live music after months of DJs and sad Santiago radio stations. Lollapalooza Chile started a few years ago and this year it brought us Elle Goulding, Phoenix, Imagine Dragons, Portugal. the Man, Cage the Elephant, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Capital Cities and a few Chilean artists, too. p.s. Francisca Valenzuela is the only Chilean heading to Chicago so if you're going, check her out!
Tickets are pricier than Chicago, obviously. You are bringing bands to South America! Plus, Santiago is expensive and exclusive. Who goes to Lollapalooza? People with money; the upper middle-class buy tickets for their teenage kids to run around, the socialists go to try to be seen and be photographed and then there are the Americans. Something mind boggling? The Early Bird tickets sold out in 1 day; they go for $90 US and are before the bands are published. So, you buy a ticket before knowing who is coming? Crazy!
My theory is that the ticket is priced to bring a certain social crowd in and keep certain socioeconomic groups out. How sad !! Is that how music festivals are in the States, too? I don't know. I just can sense the politics of the social caste system here as sharp as Cheddar.
Enough about politics. Let's talk about how FUN it is to dance to live music! I loved dancing to Vampire Weekend on Sunday afternoon and before them, Portugal. the Man. Both said it was their first time to South America and they were loving the vibes!
What did I love best about Lolla? Pablo took me to listen to bands that he knows and likes but were new to me, and I did the same. He introduced me to Anita Tijoux, a Chilean hip hop performer. She put on an awesome show but even better, she is a class-act. Some of those rich Chileans I mentioned earlier were yelling mean things to her during her concert. First, show some class. Second, why go to her show if you're bringing negative vibes? Find somewhere else to try to be cool. Lolla was started to share the love of music and support live music. @anita I danced, smiled and am a new fan!
Pablo is a new fan of Imagine Dragons and Phoenix. Hooray!
My favorite concert? Vampire Weekend! I danced like a crazy girl, jumping up and down and around the whole hour. I have been listening to them for a while and they were the band I have wanted to see live for some time. And they delivered great music.
Unexpectedly great? Elle Goulding is an artistic character and she's got a great voice!
Criticism? Chileans smoke a lot. And with 70,000 people in a very crowded park I was breathing secondhand smoke from at least 5,000 people almost all day. It was awful. There were too many people there; constant pushing to move through the crowds and very little grass space to sit. You couldn't sit and listen to the bands because with so many people, you had to stand and defend your spot. The overcrowded park and smoking were hard to ignore. I don't think I'd go to Lolla2015.
Also, trash. How can you consciously keep your trash on the grass and not feel bad? There is a general lack of responsibility and pride in their public spaces. There were enough trash bins but way too much garbage on the ground. I'm talking about bags of chips, wine bottles, and thousands of cigarette butts. To help someone not in Chile understand, these concert-goers have had full-time nannies in their house their whole life so they've never had to clean one bathroom or sweep a floor.
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| organic apples for sale by biker! |
Were the shows great? No. The bands play for about an hour each so they play a mix of old and new tunes. There weren't lights or even a WOW factor. Just music.
What else was there? There was a big kids area with their own kids stage, games and arts activities. At the main entrance to the park you first walk by a Playstation tent where people were lined up every day to play videogames. There was a corner with lots of potential but noticeably a lack of action: the Sustainability Corner. Lots of organic/natural booths with cool products but lame vendors. You walk by and they don't engage with casual or interested potential clients.
Would I go again? Probably not. I'd rather go backpacking in the south for a long weekend or surfing at the coast. Am I glad I went? Heck yes!
What's playing on my youtube right now? the full Imagine Dragons album!
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