Have you ever noticed how you can look forward to something for so long and then out of nowhere it's over and it almost feels like it was a dream? I feel that way about Christmas every year. In fact, that's how I feel about almost all the significant events in my life. Sometimes it makes me feel like my life is flying by at lightning speed. I bought tickets for Lollapalooza almost three months ago. Back then I was still in California. I hadn't met any of the people I spend all my time with these days. I had never set foot on the Duoc campus or taught a class of university students. It almost feels like that was a different life. It hasn't been that long but so much has changed for me since then that I think about that "Melanie" and she seems almost like a distant stranger. Like a little sister I had but I don't know anymore. Well, not quite that heavy.
Anyway...
LOLLAPALOOZA WAS AWESOME!
The first three and a half hours of our time there were possibly the most frustrating of my life. We arrived at will-call to a giant crowd of people seemingly completely disorganized and all fighting for their tickets. As is typical of Chile they were completely understaffed and unprepared for the enormous amount of people trying to get to their tickets at the same time. The number had to be in the thousands and there were perhaps 8 people manning 3 tables trying to get the tickets out. Once the crowd started to get out of hand the carabineros (police) were called in to try to organize us to little avail. They came in in droves, with their threatening water cannons on their giant tanks, trying to quell a potential riot. Somehow I was ushered into a line that didn't go anywhere for nearly 2 hours. The only reason I made it through to get my ticket was because I started yelling at a Brazilian woman who was screaming at everyone and the Chilean policemen thought it was funny. One of them thought I was so funny he asked me for my number and then proceeded to call and text me constantly for the next three days, but that's beside the point. Below is a picture of the SNAFU at will call.
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| Will Call madness |
Ticket in hand I happily ran into the park and spent the day watching some great bands. The first day it was Cypress Hill, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, The National and The Killers. The Killers put on a great show and have been one of my favorite bands since high school. You can see a little glimpse of their show below. Edward Sharpe was great too despite the fact that his show was in an indoor arena which meant that it was like sitting in a sauna for an hour, half of which was silent due to technical difficulties.
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| The Killers |
The second day we were able to walk in with the wristbands we'd received the day before and not having to wait in the will call line made all the difference to how the day started. I had 100x more energy and I knew that a great day was ahead of me because there were almost twice as many bands playing as the day before that I really wanted to see. The day started off with 311, which was nice and mellow. From there I moved on to Chico Trujillo, which is a Chilean band. They were so much fun and we spent the whole show jumping and dancing around. This is them below.
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| Chico Trujillo |
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| A new friend and an old Chilean friend |
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After Chico Trujillo we met up with some other Teaching Chile participants. I think almost the whole program was at the festival. We sat in the grass and listened to the Flaming Lips and Sublime with Rome. Those two groups are so chill and relaxing it was wonderful to just sit barefoot on the lawn in the sun, sipping on piscolas and enjoying time with friends.
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| One of the larger stages |
As the sun went down Jane's Addiction came out. The frontman of Jane's Addiction, Perry Ferrel is the genius behind Lollapalooza. Although I'm not the biggest fan of his music you have to respect a guy who can successfully throw a party for tens of thousands of people. The last act we saw of the day was Kanye West, who was disappointing as always for which I was incredibly thankful because I did not feel the least bit guilty about leaving early so I could get on the metro with no problem. I fell into my bed completely exhausted but so very very happy and content I fell asleep in about ten seconds with a smile on my face. As usual, I needed a weekend to recover from my weekend and Monday came all too soon. Back to life. Back to reality.
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| Grazing in the grass is a gas, can you dig it? |
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| Pre-Lollapalooza smiles |
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Photo credits: Jenna Rymer and Kortnee Byrd
