During a press conference for Lollapalooza 2006, I remember festival organizer Perry Farrell telling reporters that he had big dreams of complete world domination for Lolla. When he said that, me and the other press folk sort of chuckled because it seemed like just a funny thing that Farrell was saying to be playful and joke around with us.
But after the news today that Lollapalooza will expand to Chile, it was obviously not a joke at all.
As Greg Kot reports today on his Turn It Up,
Lollapalooza’s promoters, Texas-based C3 Presents and the William Morris Agency, have been exploring additional locations worldwide for several years. Santiago was chosen because it boasts a similar urban setting to the Chicago festival, with easy access to hotels, restaurants and clubs. The festival will be held April 2-3, 2011, at O’Higgins Park, with capacity of 100,000 people a day, promoters say.
Well, this “foreign music exchange” that Farrell is talking about brings up a lot of issues, now doesn’t it?
First, it makes me think back to our post about the Pixies doing it real nice during their Chilean miner tribute show earlier this year. And now, Chilean live music fans will get to host their Lolla next spring. I just hope there’s no more trapped and rescued miners to pay tribute to this time.
The next thing I thought about was our list on how to improve Lollapalooza 2011. And after Lolla 2010, expansion was at the bottom of our list of ways to make the fan experience better.
But we’ll have to wait and see, what’s in store for this new version of Lolla and Chilean fans and bands.
That said, we’ll definitely take a deeper look into how live music fans in Santiago, Chile will enjoy their own version of Lollapalooza.
What do you think of Lollapalooza’s expansion to Chile?