Here's Lolla's Evacuation Plan, In Case It Storms As Hard As Last Weekend
By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 28, 2016 3:45PM
Lollapalooza crowd, photo by Jim Kopeny / Tankboy
Update, 11:30 a.m.: Weather is already disrupting the festival, and it hasn't even started yet. Lolla typically opens at 11 a.m. each day, but today's opening has been pushed back due to weather. And it's not even raining yet? It's unclear how long the delay will last, but here's the latest from the festival:
Doors for Day 1 of #Lolla are delayed due to weather. Stay tuned for more info. pic.twitter.com/Go25Bvglte
— Lollapalooza (@lollapalooza) July 28, 2016
Update, 1:20 p.m.: The gates opened shortly after the delay was posted.
Today is the first day of Lollapalooza, a sometimes-surreal ultra-marathon of live music in Grant Park—and it's also likely to storm tonight, according to Accuweather. We are really in no place to take storms lightly, since just last weekend a storm owned a CTA station and left an epic trail of destruction across Chicagoland. So, for kicks and also very practical reasons, let's go over Lollapalooza's evacuation plan:
If there's a weather evacuation today, as there was last year, festival-goers should head to one of the three shelters listed here:
GRANT PARK NORTH GARAGE 25 N. Michigan Avenue (Between Washington and Madison - enter via vehicle entrance on Michigan) GRANT PARK SOUTH GARAGE 325 S. Michigan Avenue (Between Jackson and Van Buren - enter via vehicle entrance on Michigan) MILLENNIUM LAKESIDE GARAGE 5 S. Columbus Drive (Michigan between Jackson and East Adams - enter via vehicle entrance on Michigan)
This should be pretty intuitive. If an evacuation happens, festival officials will tell you where to go through basically every medium possible: via video screens and audio announcements all across the festival, push notifications in Lolla's "official mobile app," and Lolla's Facebook and Twitter accounts, according to a statement Lolla released Wednesday.
(FYI, the shelters won't be open unless the weather gets really bad, so you can't just like, go for fun while it's sunny out.)
Here's a map of all the shelter locations, should it come in handy:
