Lollapalooza, day 2, was a hot time in the old town. If you don't like the weather in Chicago, wait a day. We were almost wishing for Friday's cool rains as the sun blazed down, and we filled a spray bottle in a futile attempt to stay comfy.
We have so many fun photos, I'm going to include a smattering throughout the blog, and include the rest on a Snapfish link, here.
We wanted the kids well rested, so we paced ourselves on the middle day and went from 3pm to close. We made it to the kids area just in time for teen punk band, Care Bears On Fire,
and special guest artist-- Band of Horses. We stayed through Ralph's World and the daily Remo drum circle before we made a break for the festival at large.
It was a day for seeing friends. We ran into Dan O'Conner, our friend who works for Spin Magazine, who was there with his wife and 3 sons. We saw him solo at the X concert and with the whole family last year at Hideout Block Party and Old Town Folk and Roots Fest. This time his baby's mobile, and looks just like his Dad already (minus the curly 'stash)!
Sage was thrilled to score one of Dan's super cool, hand made, very limited edition t-shirts. He makes them for his family and a few friends at every music festival.
He hand cuts band name stencils and spray paints on thrift shirts. They're very creative and greatly coveted.
(It features a whole back full of fest faves, including The Raveonettes, in bold type--who were excellent BTW). Thank you, Dan!!
We also saw another writer friend whose son, Basil, ran up and gave Sage a Vegan cookie. We used to laugh about the spice kids and say we just need to find a Mama who named her kid Parsley or Oregano. Rosemary or Thyme anyone?
We saw Du-Jay's much loved first grade teacher, Mr. Z, whom we also hung with last year at Hideout Block Party. And we spent the day with our good, long time friends, Trevor and his Mom, Lisa, whom we have hung with the last 4 years at Lollapalooza.
They left before the final lottery, but came back past the kids area looking for a falafel, just in time to hear Trevor's name called as the grand prize Gibson electric guitar winner! Talk about lucky...... You have to be present to win and they were just about to skip to another name when they came running back shouting, "We're here!!!!" So, see.... Eating healthy pays off.
Sage's lucky streak continued as well. She won a First Act "Fun in a Drum" instrument set and Du-Jay won another Lolla harmonica.
We missed Small Paul and all the artists Paul Frank flew in from California the last 3 years to silkscreen totes and tees. We got spoiled by all the great swag they always brought. This economy's really cutting into everyone's free fun!
Since there weren't any tees to screen this year, I made dark tee transfer shirts for both kids. Du is wearing the Tool one I made for him, while Sagezilla's back says "I'm Minnie Pearl" with a Dead Milkmen X eyed cow logo.
The front has a photo turned sketch of her eating ice cream and says EATING FUDGE BANANA SWIRL across the bottom. Anyone around from the 80's probably remembers The Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl". Zilla loves it.
The front has a photo turned sketch of her eating ice cream and says EATING FUDGE BANANA SWIRL across the bottom. Anyone around from the 80's probably remembers The Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl". Zilla loves it.
Both kids still enjoyed the annual punk hair coloring, rock star photo op stage, delicious Pro Bug samples and prize wheel(The CEO was there with her toddler in arms),
tattoo painting and window art by a muse (our friends--formerly art party--that we made tote bags with last year at Hideout).
They paired with The Wilderness, America's largest water park resort, to run a kids concert poster contest to win a weekend stay for 4.
Of course, some of the greatest fun is still free and powered by kid energy--like multi hooping!
One of the best parts of the day was the Rock and Recycle program on Lollapalooza's "Green Street". The kids both won great t-shirts for picking up plastic bottles and cans. One full garbage bag= a free shirt, so they worked together to fill 2.
It was a positive experience, as everyone cheered them on and thanked them. And they got to feel like they were really making a difference and helping the earth. The kids got the shirts and we got two chances to win a Honda Insight hybrid.
Green Street was also where we got to meet Coco Loco's master carver, featured in prior ChiIL Mama post, "Those Must Be Really Little Sheep".
We closed out the evening on a heavier note with Rise Against and Tool. Du got a bit creeped out by Tool's screen graphics that reminded him of Voldemort. He still enjoyed the music, but opted to listen and not watch.
Sagezilla was moshing with the twenty something kids next to us. She danced, spun and bounced till the final notes rang out after 10pm, and charmed everyone around her.
We enjoyed time with Dug's former roommate from back-in-the-day, Anna, whom he went to the first few Lollapalooza's with, in the early 90's. It's so great to hear excellent music and not spend a fortune on a baby sitter, or have to rush home early. Kids 10 and under are still free at Lollapalooza with a paying adult.
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