This August’s Lollapalooza brought 225,000 people to Grant Park. 120 bands were invited to sing on eight stages. The first day’s highlight were definitely Radiohead, the weekend's most heavily anticipated headliner. Wilco and Range Against the Machine were excitedly expected on the second day. Rage certainly deserved the spotlight as they had the thousands of people present there at their feet, performing songs such as "Calm Like a Bomb" and "Bulls on Parade." Lollapalooza concluded on Sunday with performances from Kanye West, Love and Rockets, Gnarls Barkley and Nine Inch Nails.

In spite of the more crowded conditions inside the festival grounds, waiting lines for concessions and restrooms were relatively short. The longest queues were for the drinking fountains. And still there were too many stages and too-close to one another.

This year’s festival was able to rise to the challenge but it certainly can’t get any bigger than this.

Lollapalooza is an American hip hop, alternative rock and punk rock music festival, which also features comedy and dance performances. Its main strong point was the fact that despite other notorious music festivals like Woodstock for instance, it toured North America from one corner to another from 1991 through 1997 and started again through its revival in 2003. When its organizers decided to rest for two days in the same city in 2004, luck was not on their side as they had to cancel the tour because of poor ticket sales. Beginning in 2005 it is one of the weekend destinations in Chicago.

Despite rumors, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama did not make an appearance during Wilco’s set, which proceeded in a peaceful matter.