Lollapalooza Turns 20 With Style

By Michael Lopez

It’s hard to believe that the Lollapalooza festival is now 20 years old. Back in 1991, Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell conceived of the idea as a way to take star studded "super concerts” on the road. And now, it has become a staple of showcasing established and up-and-coming musical talent. This past weekend’s lineup was no exception and proved that the 'Palooza is still going strong!

Kicking off Friday at Chicago’s Grant Park, the show got off to a great start with a spirited performance from Coldplay (making their Lollapalooza debut). Doling out classics like "Yellow" and "In My Place," Chris Martin and company delivered the goods. They even kicked off their set with a cover of Jay-Z’s "99 Problems."

"It took us 20 years to get to Lollapalooza and we've always wanted to do it," Martin enthusiastically told the crowd. "Thank you for making four young — well, not that young anymore — but four men's dreams come true. We're going to give everything we have this evening."

Other Friday highlights included a high-concept performance from Muse and the debut of Pete Wentz’ Fall Out Boy followup, Black Cards. And the warm summer night definitely brought out the fans. Over 90,000 people attended the kickoff!

Day two turned out to be just as exciting. Sporting what looked like a football uniform gone wrong, Cee-Lo commanded major attention on the mic when he blared out hits like "F**k You" and "Crazy." Another big Saturday crowd pleaser was headliner Eminem, who played with a live backing band and spewed rhymes for over 90 minutes.

Sunday continued the positive streak with quite a diverse array of bands. House fans got crowd-bumping beats courtesy of DJ Deadmau5, 80’s music lovers enjoyed retro tunes from the reunited Cars, and the Foo Fighters closed things up with a super high-energy set.

When it was all over, founder Perry Farrell took the mic and thanked the fans for their continued support.

"I will tell you, looking back at the whole weekend, this is one of the great moments of my life," Farrell said. "No matter what happens from here, I had a great moment in the sun."

And don’t think we forgot about the Latino presence at this year’s festival. Lollapalooza kicked off its first concert in Chile earlier this year and one of the country’s hottest bands came north to return the favor. Chico Trujillo’s mix of horns and percussion delivered a very memorable experience that overwhelmed the crowd.

It’s also interesting to note that Lollapalooza will be heading to Brazil in 2012. So we can only imagine the increased impact it will have on the Latino culture by the time year 40 rolls around!

Have you ever been to Lollapalooza? Sound off in the comments or @MTV3.

Tags Black Cards, Blogger: Michael Lopez, Cee-Lo, Chico Trujillo, Coldplay, Deadmau5, Eminem, Foo Fighters, Hot Stuff, Lollapalooza, Lollapalooza 2011, Música, muse, Perry Farrell, The Cars