I’m back! Hellooooo everyone! Lollapalooza and this whole weekend away has been so much fun and a much needed break but I’m really happy to be home!
I can’t believe that I’m back already – how does time fly so quickly?! The music was so awesome; I heard some amazing bands this weekend and saw some seriously spectacular shows. I also ate some crazy good food which is what you’re all here for, right?! We’ll get to that but I’ll let you know now that this post is definitely going to be a mash up of food and music love – let’s call it “foosic” shall we? Okay, great. Let’s get going!
FRIDAY
Let me set the scene for you guys. Dan and I drove up to Chicago together but we were meeting up with our friends Autumn and Tiffany and staying with their friends Christina and Sara who awesomely let us stay at their apartment for the whole weekend even though they’d never met us. They were the coolest girls and we had so much fun hanging out with them. They were also brilliant hosts and fed us beer and food as well as providing us beds – can’t get better than that, right?
After our breakfast of homemade cinnamon bread and Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffees, we headed out to pick up ponchos and other wet weather essentials and then hit Lollapalooza! I munched a Luna Lemon Zest bar en route with the boy and loved it! I think me and Luna really got off on the wrong foot because I’ve loved both of the bars so far (really did not like the choc&pb; cookie though). The creamy layer was delicious and the lemon flavor really had a zing!
The boy and I also shared a Jimmy John’s 8″ Turkey Tom (fresh sliced turkey breast, topped with lettuce, tomato, alfalfa sprouts, and mayo). It was really good but gobbled at a hundred miles an hour in the biggest torrential downpour of all time…hence no pic).
One thing that did not cooperate one bit for us this weekend was the weather. I mean, wow. I really didn’t think through the possibilities of going to a music festival in Chicago in August. It’s hard when you’re buying the ticket in Minnesota May to comprehend heat being a negative thing. Well, heat wasn’t actually a problem Friday because it just poured rain all day and I mean poured. I wish I had a decent picture of just the volume of water coming down, but here’s the next best thing which is me, drenched!
Still happy though, see?! Hell yeahs. We didn’t let the rain dampen our spirits. Dan and I just decided beer was essential to keep us happy campers. That Budweiser Lime stuff was weird though – I should’ve just got the real thing. This was during Ben Folds who was a brilliant antidote to the rain. I was super happy that he played “Kate”. Actually, the first act we saw was Bon Iver. He has the most beautiful voice ever and was such a lovely opening act to see to ease the pain of rain. I highly recommend checking Bon Iver out peeps! He is wonderful.
Next up, we squelched our way over to see some of Crystal Castles, who were nuts. Their vocalist was a crazy lady – she was chugging vodka from the bottle and jumping into the crowd and disappearing a lot!
All of a sudden it was 6.00pm and I was hungers! I was quite impressed with the food on offer at Lollapalooza in terms of vegetarian options. I went veggie for the weekend while I was there since the meat options just looked kind of sketch and unappealing to me. For the record, Dan said all the meat stuff he ate was awesome so there y’are. My first Lolla dinner was a black bean burger pita sandwich:
This was pretty dang yum. The cabbage it came with was really crunchy and fresh and I doused a fair bit of sriracha sauce on top that gave it a proper kick!
Next up was a coffee stop to warm us up since we were soaked from 5+ hours in the torrential rain…
Full of lovely food and coffee, I was ready for the Friday night headliner: Depeche Mode. I was still deciding til the last minute whether to pick Kings of Leon instead as they clashed but I’ve seen those guys before and I decided Depeche Mode was probably someone that would turn out to be more memorable. Plus the others were defo seeing DM.
Best decision! They rocked it hardcore and I loved every minute of their set. They put on such a good show – I mean, the music was amazing but the light show and videos they projected were just so entertaining to watch too. Plus, their lead singer is hardcore! I think he must do pilates or something because the man has killer abs and is about 50 years old! Ha ha,
Friday was super fun. We didn’t let the rain get us down which was key, even though it was seriously pretty miserable! Still, I would say it was my least favorite of the three days since we saw the fewest bands and got drenched in the process. So, we said goodnight to Chicago:
…and headed back to our friends’ apartment in Logan Square to have showers and a beer. I promptly passed out straight afterward!
SATURDAY
Ready for a breakfast collage?!
Our amazing hosts made Coconut Cream Pie pancakes for breakfast on Saturday morning! Yeah. That’s what I said: Coconut Cream Pie pancakes. OHMYGOD. They were amazing! They also had this incredible pecan maple syrup which made the whole thing just explode in my mouth. I LOVED them. Had three of the buggers and an extra special vacay-sized iced coffee with skim and sugar from Dunkin’ Donuts. It made me go loopy. I never order larger than a small since caffeine can really affect me so this was kind of hilarious.
En route to the subway, I also ate a banana since brekkie was severely lacking in the protein department. We headed out earlier Saturday since me, Autumn and Tiffany were incredibly over excited about seeing this band called Los Campesinos! We got there an hour before they were due to go on and caught the end of Delta Spirit, who rocked it, before squeezing our way right to the front of the crowd and securing spots for LC’s set. We had to stand for an entire hour in the sweltering heat (92F), surrounded by hundreds of other sweaty people, in the direct sunshine. And I was hungry. Uh oh. That breakfast had very little staying power and it was already almost four hours since I’d eaten. I chugged water to stay hydrated in the heat and humidity and then forgot all my hunger woes during their amazing set! Defo one of my faves of the festival – I LOVE this band! I danced my arse off for the second half of the set (about 30 mins) and was literally pouring sweat; just drenched. There is no greater feeling for me than seeing a band I love live, up close and jumping around and dancing to them. I was so happy!
Afterward the gals were feeling pretty bad so they headed for the shade to recover but I had to meet Dan a mile away on the opposite end of the festival so I trudged off and by the time I reached him I actually couldn’t really form sentences, I was so weak and dizzy with heat and hunger. Bad news, right? I just told him I needed food and water asap and of course he took care of me, steering me towards the trusty veggie stand from the night before to get this:
This time it was falafel with oodles of hummus and even better than the black bean burger (maybe because I was so starved?)
It is pretty crazy how quickly this made me feel better! I sat down in the shade and munched it down, chugged some water and before I knew it, I was ready for this:
I am silly. This wasn’t just a watermelon slice, it was like a quarter and it was mahooosive! I shared it with the boy and managed to actually get a tummy ache from eating so much of it.
Anyway, so the whole almost passing out from heatstroke and not eating enough thing was not a positive experience but seeing Los Campesinos! rock out was honestly worth it and I recovered super fast, to the point where twenty minutes later I was supping some vodka and sprite with my boo and laying back to watch Arctic Monkeys who happen to hail from Sheffield, where I went to university in England! Yay for local boys making good!
This field had been empty when we arrived for the first band and completely packed out later in the day. People were getting their drank on to the max and we loved having a lazy couple hours soaking up the atmosphere.
We saw this weirdness:
And this:
Hilarious!
After some more vodka sipping and watching Santigold and TV on the Radio (awesome – wish I had been more alive) we realised we were getting a wee bit sleepy so we hit up the food stands and I found a new veggie delight:
This was called The Benevolent Burrito and it contained brown rice, sweet potato, black beans, guacamole, sweetcorn and salad in a wholewheat tortilla. Hands down, best savory festival food I had all weekend! It filled me up, was healthy and delicious! Check, check and check!
Then I was ready for Yeah Yeah Yeahs! Wooooooo! They were awesome! I have such a girl crush on Karen O…man. I wish I got some better photos but this was the best I could come up with. Yep, she came on stage wearing a gigantic bird/feather affair complete with head dress, mad leggings and crazy shoes. I love her. They played such an amazing show.
Then us and 100,000 friends headed into the Chicago streets to get the subway a taxi home.
I’ll be back with Part Two of this mammoth Lollapalooza recap tomorrow but I think that’s quite enough to keep you going for now! Sunday was by far the best day of the weekend and there were loads and loads of good eats so make sure you check back tomorrow!
What one thing did you do this weekend that made you happy?
