TVD Live: Lollapalooza at Grant Park, 8/4

3:17PM: There are times during a festival weekend when an artist impresses me so much that I don’t want to leave the set to head to the next one. Such is the case with Sudan Archives, who’s proving to be a performer with a capital “P.” A love of Irish music prompted her to pick up the violin, which lead to the development of her own style incorporating R&B, hip hop, and electronic sounds. Check out her critically acclaimed 2022 album, Natural Brown Prom Queen, if you haven’t already.

3:44PM: “You’ll definitely see me. I’m wearing a black jersey,” a guy on his phone claims, as he stands in a sea of humans at Buckingham Fountain. It makes me giggle, as there are literally thousands of men in jerseys wandering around.

4:21PM: Beebadobee fans have shown up in full force, many with handwritten signs and strong vocal chords for screaming. Filipino-English singer/songwriter Bea Kristi’s bedroom indie songs hit home with her listeners, as their chorus of voices sing along to every word.

5:15PM: I haven’t checked out the BMI Stage yet, and Nashville’s Charlotte Sands seems like a perfect opportunity to do so. She serves up some serious emo headbangers.

6:20PM: It’s time for a Foals dance party and I’m soaking it all up because they’ve acknowledged, as they wrap up their tour, that they won’t be back in the States for “quite some time.” I use this knowledge as an excuse to watch their whole spectacular set.

7:21PM: This is my first time witnessing the extravaganza of 30 Second to Mars in person and I’m taking it all in. Jared Leto has just leapt from the top of the Bud Light stage down to the crowd, where band flags wave and fans look on in amazement. It dawns on me that I’m at the church of the Leto brothers (Shannon is on drums) and, from what I can gather, they have quite a few members.

8:00PM: “My name is Jessie fucking Reyez,” the Toronto singer exclaims. But as it turns out, she needed no introduction. The crowd knows every word of every song and she is visibly shocked and moved as a result.

8:47PM: The Kendrick Lamar crowd is massive. One of the largest crowds I’ve seen in my years photographing Lolla. I hang back and take in one of the hip hop GOATs before making my way north.

9:15PM: Somehow I’ve found myself concluding Friday night in the Knocked Loose mosh pit. The Kentucky hardcore band have a small but mighty crowd. “We don’t fit in here and that’s okay,” lead singer Bryan Garris acknowledges to cheers of outsider approval.

SUDAN ARCHIVES