Alicia Wormley 
With this being my second Lollapalooza, I was wondering if I would even enjoy this year’s festival. With the concerns of COVID along with now the Monkeypox, and the safety concerns, I don’t think I was wrong for having this initial thought. But by the end of the day, I believe I had just as much fun this year as last year.
When I arrived at the festival, it was already around 5pm, so I was able to catch the later half of the performances. I ended up walking around and checking out the activations until YG’s set at 6:00pm. Even though I don’t listen to YG a lot, he had a really good set. When I got over to his stage he was playing “FDT” which had a lot of people, including myself, hyped and singing the lyrics. Where his performance took a funny, yet weird turn was when he started yelling “Titties” and asking girls to show him. It was a bit weird, but other than that, I enjoyed his performance.
YG ended up performing his song he has with H.E.R. called “Slide”, “Don’t Tell ‘Em” with Jeremih, and his new unreleased single “Toxic,” which samples Mary J Bling’s song “Be Happy.”
Directly after his set, Big Sean came on stage at 7:00 pm and I will say he had one of the best performances of the night. Just his energy and stage presence had everyone jumping. Also, he is the only performer I saw that had effects on the jumbo screens. The screens were changing colors, giving him a motion blur, he even had background effects which just added even more to his performance.
He performed “Paradise”, “Why Would I Stop”, and more. YG ended up coming over to perform “Big Bank” and Big Sean brought out Jhene Aiko to perform “I Know.” She looked so beautiful and they sounded so amazing together.
At the end of the night, J Cole closed out Lollapalooza and he did an amazing job. The audience was captivated by his stage presence. He performed songs such as “a m a r i”, “Wet Dreamz”, and “A Tale of 2 Citiez.” J Cole also performed “Love Yourz” where he sat down and expressed how this was his favorite song and had everyone turn on their flashes creating such a beautiful moment. He messed with the audience when he performed “Middle Child” and told everyone it was the last song and “good night.” He then told us he was joking and closed the show out with “No Role Modelz.”
Saturdays had some heavy hitters performing and I am glad I was able to witness it. Three days down, one more to go.
By Alicia Wormley, Senior, Columbia College Chicago
Instagram: @aliciaw_26
Help us continue to lift youth voices in their schools and communities. Donate to True Star at: truestarmedia.org/donate.
