7 Dec 2024
Festival Days in the Sun at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
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Festival Days in the Sun at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019

Lollapalooza Stockholm sign flowers

When the internationally acclaimed Lollapalooza festival came to Stockholm for the first time, we knew we had to be there – basically no matter who would be on the bill… But they did deliver an interesting and eclectic line-up featuring Billie Eilish, Lana Del Rey, Foo Fighters, Travis Scott and many more. There really was something for everyone!

Lollapalooza was founded in 1991 by Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction fame. It started out as a touring festival that ran annually until 1997 and was revived in 2003. From 2005 onwards it has been held annually in Chicago’s Grant Park. Lollapalooza has since then spread to countries like Chile, Brazil and Argentina, as well as European locations Berlin and Paris. Stockholm now got the honors of being the first Scandinavian country to get its own Lollapalooza, and the three-day festival was such a success with 56,000 visitors that the festival is set to come back for 2020. (Yay!)

 

Imenella at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
Imenella kicked things off on the largest Tower Stage on Friday afternoon with her Unruly dancers – Photo: Nina Uddin

 

ALMA at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
Finland’s pop sensation ALMA got the crowd singing along to her catchy bangers in the afternoon sun – Photo: Nina Uddin

 

Stockholm has really been missing this type of general music festival, where the line-up offers so much variation there is something for all musical tastes. The beauty of such festivals (as opposed to niched genre-specific festivals) is that you get the chance to listen to new types of music you would not otherwise go to see live. And if you are lucky you will find new favorites. It gave us warm feelings inside seeing kids in Billie Eilish and Travis Scott t-shirts rocking out to Halestorm pumping their fists in the air…

Halestorm at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
Halestorm and the band’s front woman Lzzy Hale rocked as hard as always on the Park Stage and got the audience headbanging and throwing their horn-hands in the air – Photo: Nina Uddin




Molly Sandén at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
Molly Sandén owned the big stage with her confidence in delivering the heart-rending breakup songs from her latest release – Photo: Nina Uddin

 

The weather gods were favorable on the festival weekend, giving us pleasant temperatures and sunshine on all three days. Beside that, the festival area offered pleasant settings at the grass-covered Gärdet. There were also plenty of services including more than 40 different restaurants, a beer festival and a wine garden. There were lines to water taps and toilets on the first day, but these services were beefed up for the remaining two days making the festival experience smoother. The organisation in general was also at a high professional level, including everything from security to the technical side with large video screens at every stage.

 

Having the chance to see Brockhampton live on Swedish soils was a treat. It is fair to say that rap is now one of Sweden’s biggest favourite music genres, and among the most popular acts are collectives such as Brockhampton who speak directly to the youth. – Photo: Karen Pérez Guzmán

 

Hurula at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
Swedish indie rocker Hurula was convincing on the Park Stage, even though his darker themes felt slightly out of place in the sun – Photo: Nina Uddin

 

There were four different stages and the programme was set up so that acts alternated on the two largest stages (Tower Stage and Bay Stage) with little or no gaps in the schedule. The Park Stage at the other end of the festival area and Perry’s Stage in a tent provided alternative musical entertainment so that at times there were three acts on at the same time. The tent had a party going on pretty much non-stop. You could hear the beats banging and the crowds cheering to the tunes being played by the best DJs and producers from today’s house, techno and EDM scenes.

Kungs was one of the acts on Perry’s Stage. He has already been playing at massive festival stages such as Tomorrowland. His charisma and upbeat selection of melodies had everybody jumping and dancing from the moment he set foot on the stage. He made it hard not to love the happy summer-feel set he prepared specially for Lollapalooza. – Photo: Karen Pérez Guzmán




Friday was really characterized by Billie Eilish, as you could not have missed all the fans wearing Billie merch and sporting their colored hairdos. Billie was no doubt the one drawing the biggest crowd — pre-teens with their parents, 20-somethings and well just about everybody wanted to see her. Nobody else gathered as large a crowd in front of the main stage. Her show suffered a bit from sound problems, but being in the middle of the crowd and singing along to all the tunes to your heart’s content, you would not have paid any mind to such issues. The air was electric with a special feeling of being there together to see the most talked about artist of the moment.

Billie Eilish at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
Billie Eilish was on everybody’s “must see”-list and she delivered an energetic show to the largest crowd of the festival – Photo: Nina Uddin

See more of our Billie Eilish pictures here

 

Another one of Friday night’s big names was Lana Del Rey, who spun her magic on the audience that looked mesmerized by her soft voice and laid-back coolness. She served all the hit tunes and had the crowds singing along — as well as sighing over how beautiful she looked. Meanwhile at the other side of the festival, slightly less beautiful Swedish garage rockers The Hellacopters were putting on a helluva rock show…  And to end the evening, rap superstar Travis Scott entered the Tower Stage and had the predominantly young crowd going crazy over the beats and his energetic stage presence. Just consider how different these three acts are and you might have a hunch of just how versatile this festival was.

The Hellacopters front-man Nicke Andersson a.k.a. Nick Royale charging on with his rock temper – Photo: Karen Pérez Guzmán

 

Travis Scott taking the first day of activities at Lollapalooza to its climax – Photo: Karen Pérez Guzmán

 

The crowds were still scarce early on Saturday, when we braved the festival grounds again and went to see DJ Gunn in Perry’s party tent… Basically needed to be there to catch a favorite of ours Jasmine Kara, who joined Gunn on vocals. The early afternoon continued in the searing heat of the sun with more diverse music, including the very interesting and ubercool British artist IAMDDB, who puts together various influences like trap and jazz.

DJ Gunn and Jasmine Kara at Lollapalooza 2019
DJ Gunn and Jasmine Kara gave an energy injection to those who braved the festival tent early on the second festival day. – Photo: Nina Uddin

 

IAMDDB at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
IAMDDB brought the effortless coolness of her trap-jazz hybrid sounds – Photo: Nina Uddin

 

The crowds were more scarce on Saturday afternoon than on Friday (the Billie day), as the day’s biggest draw was clearly Foo Fighters on the last spot of the evening. They really pulled in all the rock fans at the end of the day to enjoy their two hour set in the sunset. But before that, the indie rockers had the chance to enjoy Britain’s The 1975, and the seminal Swedish post-punk rockers The Hives showed how to really put on a show and entertain the crowd.

The 1975 at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
The 1975 singer Matthew Healy put on a rather flamboyant stage show – Photo: Nina Uddin

 

The Hives frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist entertained the crowds with his signature moves like microphone throwing. And he proved that his ego really is larger than the Kaknäs Tower – Photo: Karen Pérez Guzmán

 

See more of our pictures of The Hives here

 

The rock fans really got their fill on Saturday, as beside the Foo Fighters we were served the band touted as the future of classic rock — Greta Van Fleet. The young Michigan band have been compared to the likes of Led Zeppelin and Robert Plant and are a part of a new generation of rockers who are breathing life into the genre like it hasn’t been done in the most recent years. The brothers Jake, Sam and Josh Kiszka and their family friend Jake Wagner may have a very short road behind them, but they surely have very prominent future.

Josh Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet showing off his impressive set of pipes – Photo: Karen Pérez Guzmán

 

Sweden’s own multi-talented singer, songwriter, producer (and pretty much everything else) Laleh put in a memorable show and the tone was set from the start, when music journalist Annah Björk read the chapter about Laleh from her new book — in which the international artist is rather disappointed to find out that the master producer was a young woman. As Laleh has mostly been away in the US, the audiences have been thirsting for her music and the crowds at Lollapalooza turned into Allsång at Gärdet during her biggest hits.

Laleh at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
Laleh was all smiles and winks and waves with the audience in between singing all her favorite tunes – Photo: Nina Uddin

 

See more of our Laleh pictures here

 




Sunday started almost too early in the afternoon, as we had to make our way to see big favorites of ours, Smith & Thell — although it turned out to be just Smith without Thell, and the special dynamics between Maria and Victor were definitely missed. But their hit grade folk pop is so darn good it was still much better than the majority of other acts at the festival.

Smith & Thell at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
Maria Smith assumed front woman duties with the band, when Smith & Thell wowed the crowds with their strong hits like Forgive Me Friend – Photo: Nina Uddin

 

The Sunday was probably the most-laid back day and people were enjoying the festival atmosphere in the sun, at times finding well-needed shade  or getting a Lollapalooza cap from the Lolla merch shop when the afternoon sun got just a tad too hot. The afternoon entertainment included Norway’s electronic duo Lemaitre, who sounded rather excellent live, and Sweden’s own Markus Krunegård, who got the biggest cheers at the end of his set when he brought out crowd favorite Miriam Bryant as his guest. The very pleasant lazing on a Sunday afternoon feelings continued with the smooth sounds and amazing vocals of Mr. Jacob Banks.

 

Markus Krunegård at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
Markus Krunegård served a lot of his crowd-pleasing hits on the sunny Sunday afternoon – Photo: Nina Uddin

 

Jacob Banks at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
The amazing voice of Jacob Banks made people really listen, even the ones lounging on their picnic blankets – Photo: Nina Uddin

 

Most of the rest of the Sunday evening belonged to very inspiring Swedish/Scandinavian female artists. Sweden’s own Tove Styrke brought out her perfect pop sensibilities and contagious, fairy-like stage presence on stage. She was followed by the up-beat and energetic Danish star , who really loves getting close to her audience – high-fiving the front-row fans on many occasions and wading through the crowds to a smaller stage at the back at one point. The female power trio was completed by Swedish L.A.-based super star Lykke Li, who had the look of tormented beauty in her shiny red latex outfit.

Tove Styrke at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
Tove Styrke looked the part of a pop princess in her lacy outfit and had the crowds dancing to her hits – Photo: Nina Uddin

See more of our Tove Styrke pictures here

 

MØ at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
MØ always likes to get friendly with the audience, so that’s where she started her show – Photo: Nina Uddin

See more of our MØ pictures here

 

Lykke Li at Lollapalooza Stockholm 2019
Lykke Li really looked the part of So Sad So Sexy – Photo: Nina Uddin

 

While those more inclined towards pop sounds were enjoying all these powerful female acts on the two main stages, fans of harder rock got their fill of the day on the Park Stage with Australian rock outfit Wolfmother, who fit into that nostalgic classic rock category along with the previous day’s Greta Van Fleet.

Wolfmother’s lead vocalist Andrew Stockdale getting the rock crowd excited at the Park Stage on Sunday. – Photo: Karen Pérez Guzmán

 

When we heard the news that Chance the Rapper, Sunday’s headliner and the festival’s closing act, was cancelling his performance at Lollapalooza, it seemed quite a task for the organizers to come up with someone to cover up such a gap in the line-up. Then word spread that it would be the Colombian reggaeton super star J. Balvin… some derided the choice but many more loved it. The rise of reggaeton in Sweden and in the world has been unparalleled, and so we’ve seen more and more artists from this genre headlining festivals and topping charts all over the world. José Álvaro Osorio Balvín, a.k.a. J. Balvin jumped onto Lollapalooza’s main stage, the Tower Stage, on the evening of Sunday to tell Stockholmers why they should fill up their lives with reggaeton, and just dance, dance, dance…

J. Balvin at Lollapalooza Stockhom 2019
J. Balvin filled in the big shoes and ended the festival in style – Photo: Karen Pérez Guzmán

 

All in all, we must say Lollapalooza Stockholm’s first edition was a resounding success for music fans like ourselves. And the 56,000 strong crowd was enough for the organizers to announce already on Sunday evening that there will indeed be a Lollapalooza 2020. Stockholm really needs a festival like this and we are already looking forward to next summer!

 


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