Every once and awhile I like to take one issue of a local newspaper, thoroughly read the article, and then offer my opinions/feedback/criticisms about that article. For this blog, I have chosen Saturday's Chicago Sun-times--my favorite newspaper.
The article that grabbed my attention was LOLLAPALOOZA sold out, but you can watch the show from home. For those of you who aren't familiar with LOLLAPALOOZA, it is a 3-day music festival in Grant Park. Each year they book different performers: last year the headliner was Lady Gaga; this year Eminem.
Aside from the live stage, which would be where Eminem would perform, there's also an EDM (electronic dance music) stage. By now, after reading my blog for a month, you'd already be 99% sure of the stage I'll be at: EDM stage, of course. So I guess it comes down to Eminem versus Deadmou5e; and even though I lost a lot of respect from Eminem and Deadmouse is very unoriginal, I'm still going to be at that EDM stage all day--just to show my solidarity for electronic music.
As I said, the festival is sold out and this leads to every year people hopping the fences to sneak in without paying for tickets. I'm guilty myself, as one year me and my friends bought old wrist bands--which is your proof of payment--and had the tweek who should them to us tape them on our wrists with scotch tape.
"No way MAN! I am not sneaking in like this! We'll go to jail!" I said to my group.
But it was my only choice. If I wanted to watch the best music festival Chicago has to offer, I'd have to suck it up, grow up and pass through security with old, makeshift wristbands (with the scotch tape), and hope that the dude with the scannner that validates the authenticty of each wrsit is in on the scam. If not, we're off to jail.
So I did it. Eventhough I was a nervous wreck, I closed my eyes and took the "blind faith" angle. As I approached the security office with the scanner, I was sure he was going to have me locked up. But it didn't happen that way. Security scanned the wristband, a little light on the scanner turned green, and I got in!
My freinds who took the other approach of scaling the perimeter, chain-link fances, weren't so lucky. They climbed to the top and began to climb down. As soon as their feet hit the ground...boom! Chicago police waiting with handcuffs in ready-mode.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that breaking the law to enter that festival is NOT worth it. Also, paying the hundreds of dollars for legit passes is only worth it if there are perfromers you really, really, really want to see.
This year, I'm going to pass on LOLLAPALOOZA.
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