385,000 went to Lollapalooza, but it wasn’t a COVID superspreader event, experts say

Lollapalooza was slammed by critics last month as hundreds of thousands of attendees packed the Chicago music festival — but health officials say it was not a superspreader for COVID-19.

Out of the 385,000 people who attended Lollapalooza July 29-Aug. 1, 203 cases were reported from the festival, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Thursday in a news briefing streamed by WLS.

Arwady said the results did not surprise her. Around 88% of the festival’s attendees were vaccinated, she said.

“We would have seen a surge if we were going to see a surge at this point,” she said.

Lollapalooza was one of the first major music festivals to take place this year in the United States, despite COVID-19 cases rising in the last month due to the delta variant. The majority of this year’s festivals will take place during the fall months, many with COVID-19 protocols in place.

The Chicago festival had stringent protocols, as it required attendees to show proof of vaccination or of a negative COVID-19 test. Other major festivals, including Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tennessee, and Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, have since followed Lolla’s lead in implementing similar rules.

Of the vaccinated attendees at Lollapalooza, only 0.0004% have tested positive for the virus, Arwardy said. She added that 0.0016% of unvaccinated people who attended have tested positive.

There have been no hospitalizations or deaths linked to Lollapalooza, the health expert said. People under 30 years old represented 79% of the positive cases, she added.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who was shown attending the festival, said earlier in July that officials felt they made “the best decision that we could” in holding the festival with the COVID-19 protocols.

Experts previously said holding Lollapalooza was “a recipe for disaster,” USA Today reported. One person wrote in an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times that the festival would be “a sure superspreader.”

Others shared similar sentiments on social media as they posted photos from the festival featuring the large crowds of maskless attendees.

This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 12:16 PM with the headline "385,000 went to Lollapalooza, but it wasn’t a COVID superspreader event, experts say."