Upon first looking at the line up of artists and coming to the realization that I’d be traveling to Chicago alone, I found myself a tad bit overwhelmed. Coming from Milwaukee to Chicago is quite the adventure alone. Entering the festival, I was in a sea of hipsters, culture and people who honestly looked like human highlighters. (By highlighters I mean there were people actually dressed head to toe in complete neon colors.) That’s one of the best things that happens from attending a festival – the pure culture that is experienced from it.

Culture. From the food that is served to the fact that there were absolutely no water bottles on site, Lolla is certainly a cultural experience. There were only water boxes. Yes, that is not a typo – the water came in a box. The media tent was filled with the water boxes and I found it very strange and it took hours to get used to the fact that water was in a box. It’s the little things like the comfort of having a water bottle, then suddenly a water bottle not existing any longer, that are the epitome of a new “cultural” experience.

From the opening of the festival, through the setting of the sun, the mass amounts of bodies continued into the sold-out Lolla Music Festival in Grant Park in Chicago, IL. Some music fans were hard-core indie music lovers; others were there for the pure pop music. Lolla has something for everyone.

Every performer did a fantastic job putting on an entertaining show. One of the performers whom I particularly enjoyed was Dev. She is well known for her big hits “Like A G6” and  “Bass Down Low” and she was a ridicuously eccentric performer. Dev was not only able to command attention of her audience but she kept them engaged for the entire performance. Another fan favorite was Haley Rhienheart from American Idol. Haley placed within the Top 10 of the 2011 Season. Haley was as sassy as she was on Idol in her debut performance at Lolla. These ladies at Lolla were fierce and their performances very fierce as well. Anyone attending any of the shows were seeing some of the top performers in the country and around the world.

A sold out festival. A huge city. Let the photos speak for themselves above. If you haven’t ever been, I would highly recommend attending Lollapalooza at some point in your lifetime. After the experience I had I am certainly pleased to say it was incredibly worth all the kinks of getting to and from Lolla this year.