Gracefully Abroad: Lollapalooza Argentina
By Grace Carballo ‘17
Last weekend I went to Lollapalooza, a musical festival, that’s become quite global with locations in São Paulo, Santiago, Berlin, Bogotá, and of course, my home of Chicago, where I first experienced the magic. This time, however, I experienced Lollapalooza Argentina in San Isidro, a suburb of Buenos Aires.
Despite it’s very British and American artist-heavy lineup, the festival definitely was different than my previous Lolla experiences, and thank goodness, because I’m thousands of miles away and seeking a little variety.
I’m very pleased to be able to report on my Lollapalooza experience because the morning before it seemed as though I would not have the chance to even get in, due to some ticket miscommunications. You can buy your “entradas” online but you have to wait in person to collect your “pulsera” or bracelet with a passport or DNI- it’s all very official and if I’m being honest with you, a bit of a hassle. Long story short, my roommate, another exchange student, and I waited for 3 hours in the rain at near front of a very long line to get these bracelets from one of the two locations, and the employees never arrived. If I’m putting a positive spin on the situation, we got to practice our complaining in Spanish with native speakers and all eventually got into the festival, but I was not the happiest of campers after this debacle.
Getting to San Isidro was a familiar journey because as I mentioned in a prior post, our lengthy commute takes two stops on the train past there every day we have school. This train, however, was alarmingly full, probably to the point of hazardously full. I was stuck directly in front of a young baby in her stroller and next to some older women, all of whom had no intentions of attending this musical festival, and each of whom I was very, very cautious not to step on or endanger as the train jerked about. I even yelled at some people trying to get on the impossibly full train to not push around the baby, “¡Cuidado!”
When we finally arrived, nothing could stop us, not even the cloudy forecast or the security at the gate, who let me by with an orange, a packet of almonds, and not one, but TWO granola bars in my backpack so I guess I have a face you can trust or maybe they empathized with my unwillingness to spend copious amounts of pesos on festival food.
Lollapalooza Argentina is set in a horse racing track so there’s a lot of wide open space and you have to do a fair amount of walking just to get to the stages. The first big difference I noticed compared to Lolla Chicago was that I was surrounded by children, which I didn’t really mind, of course, because there’s no environment better than a family-friendly one. My friend, Katy, said it best when she noted, “Kidzapalooza might as well be the Main Stage here.”
After soaking in the soul-nourishing music of Alabama Shakes, I realized a further difference, which one of our anfitriones had hinted at.
The crowd was very “cheto” which is Argentine slang for “posh.” Even though the tickets were a better deal than the Chicago equivalent, music festivals aren’t cheap and it seemed like there were also a lot of people who had traveled far specifically for the concerts. Many sat on blankets, picnic style, far from the stages, which was ideal for my friends and me to maneuver our way through the crowds as close as we could possibly get.
My favorite difference of all was the crowd’s energy. Between songs everyone broke into chants, similar to what they apparently do at fútbol games. “Olé, Olé, Olé, Mum-ford. Mum-ford,” or just as catchy, “Olé, Olé, Olé, Flor-ence, Flor-ence.” It bonded the crowd together and got the artists really excited.
Also, as I’ve noted before, mate is everywhere you turn in Buenos Aires and Lolla was no exception. Among the various food trucks and beer garden, they sold a “Mate Kit” which included cups and tea leaves to share. And, of course, the “hydration stations” had hot water for making mate alongside the cold water for peasants like me who drink water.
The rest of the artists I saw gave wonderful performances. There’s nothing like hearing Marina (of Marina and the Diamonds) read off a piece of paper in Spanish with her British accent to introduce herself, but props to her for trying and engaging with the crowd. We ended the day with Mumford and Sons, which though I consider their music pretty “chill” resulted, to my dismay, in a fair bit of moshing. Luckily I wore my combat boots because when you’re six dozen people deep in a crowd that desperately wants to get closer to the stage, it really is a battle. The grand finale was Florence and the Machine, who I could only describe with “poderosa” and “increíble” and “una experiencia espirituál” to those around me willing to listen.
My favorite part of the whole day, which I’m sure you could find footage of on Youtube if you feel so inclined, was when Florence ran out into the crowd and started climbing a viewing structure so all the people in the back could see her, too, singing all the while. I’m sure her security guards enjoyed the moment less but the crowd loved it. I also really appreciated a touching moment when she asked the crowd to put down their phones and asked everyone to meet and embrace those around them. This led me to a very cool connection with a girl from Córdoba, who knew the lyrics better than I did- no small feat.
My Lollapalooza Argentina experience, as a whole, was very positive, although I feel it important to note that there was a fair amount of gender binary perpetuation going on. The portapottis were labeled with a man icon or a woman icon and to enter the festival men had to go to the left, women to the right, neither of which made a whole lot of sense to me especially in this day and age. You’ll be happy to know I used one of the toilets “for men” both because gender is a social construct and also because who has time to wait in line “for women”?
Also, the festival ended at 1:00, but the last train to the city leaves before 11:00, so thousands of people were stuck about 90 minutes from their respective residences, which seems like poor planning, but was a great business opportunity for lots of transportation services, including the somewhat suspicious bus we took back to Plaza Italia, thankfully without any problems.
All in all, my Lollapalooza Argentina experience was well worth the little hiccups along the way, that are just part of life when adjusting to a new city and new culture. I would have liked to listen to some Argentinian artists, but I didn’t arrive in time. Fortunately, Micaela, my new friend from Universidad de San Andrés gave me a list of her favorite local artists and I have a long weekend now to familiarize myself with all they have to offer. Hopefully, I’ll have some opportunities to hear them live in the near future because, as I reaffirmed last weekend, there’s nothing better than live music with good company.
Fight on and dance on,
Grace ‘17
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