With storms and heat forecast for Lollapalooza, festivals mull how to adapt to climate change

Lollapalooza festivalgoers will likely be drenched and sweaty again this year. Thunderstorms are in the forecast, and the temperature is expected to reach the high 80s Thursday.

The outlook could change ahead of Chicago’s signature four-day music festival, but “hope is not a plan,” said Kevin Kloesel, a meteorologist with the nonprofit Event Safety Alliance .

Sueños Music Festival was rattled by severe thunderstorms less than three months ago in Grant Park. Organizers were forced to delay the final day’s start time and then cancel the finale.

A week later, just when it looked like NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race would have a full weekend of sunshine, a downpour caused the Sunday race to start late and end early. NASCAR was trying to rebound from delays and musical performance cancellations caused by record rainfall and flash floods last year.

It’s tempting to chalk this all up to bad luck. But, climate change is making weather more severe and unpredictable worldwide. At least 30 major concerts were affected by extreme weather in 2023, according to Billboard .

“Event planners find themselves making a lot of errors because the current and the future aren’t resembling the past in a lot of ways,” said Kloesel. The hazards are the same — wind, rain, hail and heat — but they are more extreme.

In the Midwest, severe storm winds have become five times more likely since the 1980s. Some areas are experiencing 20% more rain per year, and precipitation on the rainiest days has surged by 45% since 1958, according to the federal government’s Fifth National Climate Report . All the moisture in the air is also increasing the frequency of thunderstorms and tornados. Illinois has already seen 100 tornados this year, double the annual average.

Climate change has brought inclement weather precautions to the forefront of large events like Lollapalooza, requiring close coordination between city officials and event organizers.

At the same time, large events produce significant emissions that contribute to climate change. Cognizant of this, Lollapalooza organizers are experimenting with innovative ways to mitigate the festival’s carbon footprint.

Planning for inclement weather

Lollapalooza, a Chicago mainstay since 2005, has been evacuated due to extreme weather three times: in 2012, 2015 and 2017. The heat index also reached triple digits in 2018 and rain dampened the final day last year, but the shows went on.

“(The festival) has been through it. It has weather plans in place,” said Kloesel. “Now, that probably wasn’t the case 10 years ago, but it’s certainly the case now. I would put (Lollapalooza) up there as an example for other festivals to look at.”

Festival organizer C3 Presents has been working with the city of Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications to devise inclement weather plans.

“Public safety is the top priority of the City of Chicago and OEMC is in constant contact with the National Weather Service in Chicago to monitor conditions throughout the season,” said an OMEC spokeswoman in a statement. She cited a recent increase in “severe thunderstorms that form suddenly and can include flash floods, damaging winds, tornados, or dangerous lightning” as a source of concern.

Meanwhile, C3 Presents declined to comment on how increasingly common extreme weather has affected its emergency planning. However, the Lollapalooza website notes three nearby garages as evacuation sites: Millenium Lakeside, Grant Park North and Grant Park South.

Enclosed, permanent buildings like garages are good places to shelter people from storms, said Kloesel. Temporary tents have previously been the default shelter for large events, but they don’t fare well under extreme conditions.

At the Indiana State Fair in 2011 , a large wind gust from a severe thunderstorm caused a stage to collapse, killing seven and injuring nearly five dozen. The tragedy prompted Indiana to legally require stage inspections, and the fair commission revamped its emergency plans.

“It’s no different than what we’ve done for security at front gates after 9/11 and more shootings,” said Kloesel. “We also need to change the way we protect people from hazardous weather with climate change.”

More recently, a Taylor Swift concert in Brazil in November made national headlines when a young woman died during a sweltering heat wave. Closer to home, 17 people were hospitalized for heat-related illness at an Ed Sheeran concert in Pittsburg a year ago; nearly 100 people were injured during a startling June hail storm in Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater in 2023; and hundreds were stranded at Burning Man when a rare September rain turned the desert festival grounds into a mud pile.

If there is severe weather this weekend, C3 Presents advises festivalgoers to check the Lollapalooza social media handles (@lollapalooza on Instagram and X) and the Lolla mobile app for updates on set times and safety procedures.

Lollapalooza’s carbon footprint

From artist’s travel to stage lighting, music festivals generate lots of carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.

Diesel generators have been the standard mobile power source for outdoor music events since venues like Grant Park often lack easy access to electrical grids. But, diesel generators emit two times more emissions than an electrical grid for the same amount of power, according to the engineering firm Facilities Engineering Associates .

This year, Lollapalooza will become the first major U.S. festival to run its main stage entirely on a hybrid battery and generator system. By minimizing the runtime of the generators, C3 Presents expects “significant fuel and emissions savings.”

“If we can do it on this main stage, any main stage can do it,” said C3 Presents Director of Operations and Sustainability Jake Perry.

C3 Presents hopes to expand this system to other stages and festivals in subsequent years. The company organizes major festivals around the country like Bonnaroo and Governor’s Ball.

Last year, in partnership with the nonprofit REVERB , headliner Billie Eilish partially powered her 80-minute set with solar power . Batteries were charged on-site with a temporary array and then used during the nighttime show.

“(The music industry) has an outsized opportunity to influence climate action. Music and musicians have always been cultural leaders with an unparalleled ability to connect with huge swaths of people in a way that nothing else can,” said Paige Roth, the director of community and volunteer programs at REVERB.

The festival also has ongoing recycling initiatives, is offering more plant-based dining options and is encouraging concertgoers to bring empty water bottles they can refill at one of the many water stations around the festival grounds.

C3 Presents signed a 10-year contract to keep the festival in Chicago at least through 2032. The city will make at least $2 million from a four-day festival and $750,000 if the event is canceled, which could presumably happen due to bad weather.

Over time, however, Chicagoans may see event organizers shifting events to late spring or early fall when the weather tends to be milder, said Kloesel. He pointed to Austin City Limits — also organized by C3 Presents — in October and Coachella in April.

“I don’t see festivals going away at all. I see us using the weather information to become creative about when we schedule,” he said.