There’s quite a bit going on in Chicago this weekend. If you’re not heading to the Windy City for President Obama’s birthday party, you might instead be heading to a little music festival called Lollapalooza held in Chicago’s Grant Park from Aug. 5 to 7. In addition to your two one-liter bottles of water — sealed only, please — you’ll want to bring along your iPhone with the Lollapalooza Official App on the front page.
The Lollapalooza Official App features a complete schedule of all stages for all days. You can search for a particular band or focus on a specific stage if you already have an idea of whom you want to see. Star acts you plan to attend, and the app will keep track of your schedule for you. You might even be able to get event reminders via push notifications — there’s an option for this, but I can’t confirm if the reminder is for the day itself or for each artist. If you’re already using a Lolla account on the website, you can sync it with the mobile app. Tapping on an artist will give you bio details, access to Twitter, YouTube vids and the artist website and the ability to share the set info with your friends.
A full map of Grant Park is also included in app, useful if you need to find water, food, bathrooms or a medic. You can also drop and name your own pins, ideal for setting meet-up spots for large groups. Speaking of groups, the app also offers support for group texting through the service GroupMe. Within the app you can create groups and send text messages to multiple friends. How much service you’ll actually have at Grant Park during the festival remains to be seen, but this is a nice quick option for contacting all your concert-going friends in one fell swoop.
To help you get in the Lolla spirit before the event, the Lollapalooza Official App offers the Experience tab. Here you’ll find my favorite feature, Lolla Radio. Lolla Radio offers two stations, Lolla 2011, which features artists at this year’s event, and 20th Anniversary, which features bands from the festival’s past. Be sure you read the Festival FAQs so you know the dos and don’ts — wouldn’t want to lose your fancy backpack or camera at the gate if it doesn’t meet the restrictions.
Oh, and it is Chicago in August. May the weather gods smile upon you.
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