After a year without Lollapalooza, tens of thousands of people flocked to Grant Park last weekend to celebrate the resurrection of music festivals.

With COVID-19 protocols in place requiring vaccinations or a negative COVID-19 test, the city of Chicago and the festival were comfortable holding the event despite the recent rise in COVID-19 cases due to the delta variant. Despite the protocols, many criticized the festival for the potential risk it posed.

Still, fans were able to enjoy the revival of live music, which was in full force across the four-day event.

Thursday

Thursday’s performances set the tone for the festival as a whole, with early performers such as Orville Peck, Flo Milli and Aly & AJ spanning genres and ensuring all attendees had a variety of options to choose from. As the afternoon continued, crowds grew as fans made their way back to the festival after a year of absence.

Playboi Carti, who recently made an appearance at Dillo Day, took to the stage in an early evening set that included a brief interlude during which the artist climbed a fixture along the side of the stage. Soon after, pop artist Kim Petras debuted a new song, “The Future Starts Now,” in her first performance since the start of the pandemic.

Headliner Miley Cyrus closed out the night with a star-studded set featuring a wide range of past collaborators. She brought Billy Idol out to perform the pair’s collaboration off Plastic Hearts, G Herbo, Whiz Khalifa and Juicy J made an appearance for 23 and The Kid LAROI also came to perform a remix of his hit song “Without You,” featuring Cyrus. The performance, featuring songs across Cyrus’ discography, served as an electric end to the night.

Friday

The day started with performances from Jawny, known for the single “Honeypie,” and Polo G. Though Polo G came out a few minutes late and ended 15 minutes early, his set entertained the audience with fan favorites like “Rapstar” and “Pop Out.”

Following sets by rhythm and blues artist Giveon, who performed top hits like “Peaches” and “Heartbreak Anniversary,” and rapper Roddy Ricch, who concluded with his infamous song “The Box,” Tyler the Creator closed out the night on the T-Mobile stage. Performing, for one of the first times, songs off his recent album, “CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST,” the rapper had a full stage design set up, including props that called back to previous albums such as the luggage cart from his “Lumberjack” music video. He also dressed up in the blonde wig that defined his character, Igor, from his previous album of the same name.

For those who may not be as familiar with Tyler the Creator’s discography, the DJ Marshmello performed a set of electronic dance music on the opposite side of Grant Park, complete with fireworks that could be seen on either end to close out Friday night.

Saturday

On Saturday, headliners bridged the interests of attendees young and old, drawing enormous crowds. Rapper Megan Thee Stallion caught the attention of many fans, bringing an estimated 180,000 viewers to her set — a number, she said, was the highest attended set of the year at that point. She ran through a laundry list of her recent hits, much to the crowd’s enjoyment and enthusiasm.

Limp Bizkit and Journey also performed well-received sets that night, albeit for a different crowd than Megan Thee Stallion. Porches, Trippie Redd and Freddie Gibbs were among the daytime performances leading up to the headliners in the evening.

Post Malone closed the night with a comprehensive set of fan favorite songs like “Congratulations” and “rockstar” as well as new songs such as “Motley Crew.” Before his performance of “rockstar,” the singer smashed a guitar, a tradition at each of his concerts, and then dove into the hit song. Between self-deprecating humor at the quality of his music and acknowledgements of how grateful he was to each audience member, it was clear Post Malone was enjoying himself and wanted the crowd to have as good of a time as he was.

Sunday

Though the day began with a change of plans, Sunday was the ultimate closer for the four day festival. In the morning, the festival announced DaBaby would no longer be performing in light of homophobic comments he made at another festival the previous week, and rapper G Herbo would be added instead. Young Thug was moved up to a later set as a replacement headliner.

Princess Nokia kicked off the day, landed herself into a mosh pit in the crowd itself and even crowd surfed. Following her set, G Herbo came out on the T-Mobile stage and, despite being a last minute addition, delivered a full performance, including a feature with Chance the Rapper.

Rap boy band BROCKHAMPTON came on the Bud Light Seltzer stage prior to Young Thug and performed some of their famous hits including “BLEACH” and “SWEET.” Young Thug followed, though he came out 20 minutes late, and performed a full set, donning a large pink puffer jacket.

The main headliner of the night, Foo Fighters, delivered an electric performance on the T-Mobile stage, performing a handful of their 235 total songs. A massive crowd gathered to hear the legendary rock band’s set, which included everything from hits like “Everlong” to covers such as Queen’s “Somebody to Love.”

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Twitter: @jacobnfulton, @rebecca_aizin

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— The Daily’s 2021 Lollapalooza preview
— Northwestern students join crowd in Grant Park for Lollapalooza 2018
— Northwestern students flock to Lollapalooza for four-day music festival