CHICAGO – To celebrate Lollapalooza’s 20th anniversary, festival founder Perry Farrell announced today that the event’s reach is spreading out further into South America.
On the heels of the first annual Lollapalooza Chile this year, the svelte Jane’s Addiction frontman told a crowd of sweaty journos this morning that Sao Paulo will host a two-day fest on April 7-8 in 2012 at the Jockey Club, and that the Santiago-based Lolla will return, to O’Higgins Park on March 31 and April 1.
“If you can imagine the creativity and excitement of Mardi Gras mixed in with Lollapalooza, it may look something like the 2012 Sao Paulo Brazil Lollapalooza,” he said, wearing a decided un-Mardi Gras-ish striped button-down and oversized cuffs.
The Chile edition this year boasted performances from Jane’s, the Killers and Kanye West
The announcement arrives on Day One of this three-day Windy City mainstay, sold-out again this year and leading with big names like Eminem, Coldplay, Foo Fighters and deadmau5. It was velebrated with champagne, which has set my day off to a funny start.
“This is a very very big year for us,” Farrell said. “We have 90,000 weirdos showing up here today in Chicago.”
Farrell also introduced a new class of weirdos into the Lolla fold, with a newly formed partnership with Boston’s Berklee College of Music. The conjunction will bredd new scholarships for talented students nationwide and provide a new booking element to the festival’s lineup.