Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago Canceled Due To COVID–19

Music festival Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The decision was made by the city of Chicago to cancel all summer athletic events, parades and festivals. 

Lollapalooza issued an official statement on Twitter and said, “We wish we could bring Lollapalooza to Grant Park again this year, but we understand why things can’t move forward as planned. The health and safety of our fans, artists, partners, staff and community is always our highest priority.”

The statement later read, “It’s difficult to imagine summer without our annual weekend together, sharing the undeniable energy generated when live music and our incredible community of fans unite.”

It was then revealed that Lollapalooza would be holding a virtual event from July 30 to August 2 and will include performances as well as archival footage from past festivals. “Keep July 30 – August 2, 2020 on your calendars as we honor our annual tradition by bringing Chicago, and the world, together around our common bond of community, civic engagement and, of course, live music,” the statement read.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot made the decision to cancel all events on Tuesday. “Given what we know about how this disease spreads, which is close intimate contact extended over 10 minutes, realistically we will not be able to have those kind of large gatherings for some time,” she explained. “Bringing 100,000 people en masse in close quarters… downtown in Grant Park every single day, we might as well light ourselves on fire.”

She then went on to say that large events such as Lollapalooza will most likely not be taking place until there is a vaccine for the coronavirus

Other canceled events include the Chicago Summer Dance, Taste of Chicago, The Chicago Air and Water Show and the Chicago Jazz Festival.

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