Interview

I spoke with Alex, a 20 year old male who had traveled with me to Lollapalooza, and is a music director for WBRU, an alt-rock radio station. He was able to speak to some of the bands at the music festival.

Here is our interview in its entirety.


And here is a transcript from a portion of the interview.

Me: So what’s the atmosphere like at a music festival? Kinda changing topics a little bit.

Alex: Um, the most fun in the world! Um, it’s huh… it’s kind of like… a giant picnic.

Me: (laugh) Please explain.

Alex: Um, I dunno. It’s just, it’s outside! There’s, I dunno. It’s not really like a giant picnic, but um it’s an extremely positive, happy environment, like, everyone seems to be having a good time, umm, and… environment, environment, environment…um…

Me: People?

Alex: And there’s people enjoying it in like all kinds of different ways. Like there are definitely some people who were just hitting all the different things you can do and there are people, some people who seem like they are just like, you know spending all day chilling in the hammocks that are like set up by some hammock company. Um, and I think some people are definitely like running from stage to stage, others are camping out at the one stage to see their one favorite band so but I mean overall it just seemed, like a very positive environment, like people are just there to have fun and yeah. It’s just a really happy place.

Me: So, kinda like around the lines of having fun. So what was the substances scene like either legal or illegal, like who was taking them at what bands?

Alex: Okay, I mean, I’m not the best person to ask for this question, um, I mean. Legally they were selling um, beer obviously and then bottles of wine, which apparently was like, a pretty good deal for the money. Um and then, definitely saw some people smoking weed, not really in any sort of abashed fashion. Like, there was this dude and his girlfriend in this hammock, just kinda wrapped up and smoking like a piece. Like not a joint or something that was disguised, it was just like actually a bowl. Um, and there were definitely people who asked me for other drugs. I don’t remember exactly. I feel like ecstasy and acid. But there was definitely, you could tell, if you needed something you could get it. Um and basically Grant park for Lollapalooza turns into its own kinda little mini-city with like, food and people walking, like especially when you look at it like, cause there’s that big fountain in the middle. Um, it’s kinda like a community, so yeah, I mean that stuff is definitely prevalent and available. I’m not sure exactly ‘cause I went in through a media entrance. I had a media pass, and that was, my stuff wasn’t searched, so I coulda brought whatever the hell I wanted. Um there were some label reps I knew through the radio station I work at that supposedly had, I mean, mushroom brownies. Uhh, but they’re like big important people so they wouldn’t have any trouble. But um, I guess security wasn’t too intense, um, and yeah, they didn’t seem to want to really interfere, um, with much that was going on. Uh, they were kinda just hands off. The only time I saw security really get involved was at Rage against the Machine, telling people to like, “you need to take ten steps back and calm down or the band’s not gonna play anymore.”

Me: Good Answer.

Alex: Thank you.

Me: Have you seen any bands that um, like in both just a normal concert and then at a music festival?

Alex: Yes. Lots of them.

Me: Um, can you like pick maybe like three and then describe to me maybe like what made the shows different to you? Like how was a show different at Lollapalooza than compared to their own, by themselves?

Alex: Um, I think uh, one of the biggest factors is the fact that there are multiple bands slated to be on the same stage at different times. So, one example, I guess the prominent, one of the most prominent examples was Brand New, um, who I’ve seen probably three or four times before, I’ve seen them at Lolla, and I’ve seen them once afterwards. Um, and they were taking the stage rright before Kupe Fiasco, who was right before Rage against the Machine and the Rage against the Machine fans had already started you know marking their spots, and uh, the lead singer of the band, Jesse Lacey, knew they were there and was hassling the whole time. They were hassling him too, like holding up Rage shirts and just like, sticking up big middle fingers. But you could tell, he was definitely pissed off. And um, he actually ended up midsong, throwing his guitar into the drumset and just walking offstage and the band followed him. And that’s how that ended. But you could definitely tell that performance was heavily influenced by the crowd that was there.