Lollapalooza Brasil Facebook
Lollapalooza has a lot to celebrate with its first Brazilian edition now under its belt. The brainchild of Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, the alternative festival that was once meant to be his band's send-off has grown into a multi-date, dual-continent extravaganza with big names to back it up.
Lollapalooza took its first steps in São Paulo last weekend and brought some well-needed sunshine and a bit of rain to the 70,000 festival-goers who came out to see everything from emerging local bands to the biggest international stars. The five stages (including Kidzapalooza, with local children's performers for the youngest attendees) were positioned at every corner of Jockey Club, a venue usually used for putting your money down on the ponies.
But Brazil wasn't Lollapalooza's first South American stop.
The '90s mainstay's first foray outside North America was to Chile last year, where the festival made big enough waves to make its way back for another run this year -- and to open the doors for other neighbouring countries to host the alt-rock festival. While it certainly seems like an odd choice of venue for Farrell to take his once-ailing project (it had a bit of a stumble when organizers first tried to make it a two-day festival in 2004 and ticket sales were so bad the event was cancelled), South American fans are what Lollapalooza truly needs to stay alive.
Europe may appear to be the obvious choice when thinking of expanding any music festival, but as Farrell has said himself, they've already got all the music festivals there. It's the fact that South America has largely been ignored by the music industry for so long that made the sold-out Brazilian event such a success. The Foo Fighters headlined the first
