New book documents oral history of Lollapalooza from traveling festival to Grant Park staple

CBS News

17-03-2025

Lollapalooza is an essential part of summer in Chicago, and a new book has created a record of the oral history of one of the
city's most defining festivals
.
"Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock's Wildest Festival" is comprised mostly of quotes from the original rock stars, promoters and roadies who made and continue to make the music festival a cultural phenomenon.
"In telling the story of Lola, you're telling the story of a cultural movement," said co-author Richard Bienstock.
"No one died on Lollapalooza and they really could have," said co-author Tom Beaujour.
More than 30 year after the first notes rang out, Beaujour and Bienstock are telling the festival's story.
"It's really about this wacky idea you could have a festival that panned out, which was not a given when it started," Beaujour said.
While the show is now a summer fixture at Grant Park, it started as a traveling festival in 1991.
"Lolla was conceived as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction,' Bienstock explained. "Depending on who you talk to, they knew this was going to be their last hurrah and they wanted to do something special. Then it's enormously successful, and they continue to do it."
The original festival ran through 1997. There were other versions planned after that, but a little bit of right place, right time luck led to its current iteration.
"The group that does Austin City Limits was looking for another event, and the City of Chicago was looking for another festival," Beaujour said.
So Lollapalooza returned in 2005 with a permanent home in Chicago.
"Giving Grant Park to a festival is a pretty big deal," said Beaujour. "The city itself was really keen on having it happen as well."
"It's become a global phenomenon based on the Chicago version," Bienstock said.
Along the way the festival has faced challenges, controversies and some downright strange stories about the bands not covered in the book.
"If you had a problem, it was not necessarily a good decision," Beaujour said. "You were isolated, you had huge amounts of time on your hands. A lot of people relapsed on Lollapalooza."
"You see a lot of funny reactions between bands, or just bizarre, where Ministry and Henry Rollins almost get into a fight," Bienstock said.
"For me, it's just really important for people to really understand what it's like to be a musician and how much work it is," Beaujour added.
The book comes out on March 25. Lollapalooza will returns to Grant Park this summer from July 31 through August 3.