Lollapalooza 2025 starts in Grant Park as Chicago air quality plummets with wildfire smoke
Hundreds of thousands of music fans packed Grant Park Thursday for the first day of Lollapalooza 2025.
But they're not just battling crowds for the best view of the stage; Chicago air quality plummeted to unhealthy, nearly hazardous, levels Thursday thanks to smoke blown in from Canadian wildfires. For part of the day our city had the worst air quality in the world.
Street closures, security checkpoints and a massive police presence are in place for the four-day festivals.
The city's largest music festival takes over Grant Park through Sunday. More than 170 artists are playing across eight stages. People travel from all over the country to attend Lollapalooza, which regularly draws over 100,000 people each day to Chicago's.
There was a steady flow of people making their way into the festival from the moments the gates opened at 11 a.m., all of them more excited about the music and cool breeze off the lake than worried about air quality. Some came prepared with tools from lessons learned at Lollas past.
"I have the water, I have a portable fan here, and then I also have one of the Vicks inhalers, so when I get sweaty and hot in here, it's just, like, a mental reset," said Gwen Hotaling.
Some festivalgoers were pleased with the weather — in terms of temperature, at least.
"It's perfect," said Noa Weinstein. "We were just talking about how perfect the weather is."
"Not too hot, not too cold," added another woman.
They were undeterred by the wildfire smoke in the air.
"I would rather have bad air quality and like, cooler weather," Hotaling said.
The festival grounds stretch from Michigan Avenue to DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Above them, a hazy sky lingers over nine different stages: Canadian wildfire smoke.
The poor air quality can be particularly concerning for children, pregnant women and people with asthma.
"Because they're overly sensitive to start with, exposure to these really small particles that are generated by wildfires, for instance in this case, can then get into the smallest parts of the lungs and can irritate those airways and can set off things like an asthma attack," said Dr. Justin Fiala, Northwestern Medicine.
But the doctor said prolonged exposure is bad for anyone.
"It's outdoors, and people are going to spend all day if not multiple days there, so the risk with wildfire particles is that it's really a cumulative effect," Fiala said, "and so the longer you're outside, the longer you're breathing in tiny particles, the higher the dose that you're getting."
Fiala recommended adding another tool to your festival kit: an N95 or KN95 mask, which are made to filter out 95% of really small particles. And smoking and drinking are just "added insult" to the body when the air is this bad, he said.
READ MORE: Lollapalooza bag policy, lineup, schedule, festival map, Chicago road closures
There are six medical tents scattered through Grant Park should anyone need help.
Extensive street closures are in place and you should expect long delays if you're driving downtown. The bag policy only allows clear bags inside the festival. Everyone entering will also have to go through airport-style security.
Big names hitting the stage Thursday night included Tyler the Creator and Luke Combs.
