CHICAGO (AP/WBBM NEWSRADIO) — As hordes of people descend on Chicago for this weekend’s Lollapalooza music festival, restaurants and vendors who operate near Grant Park say they’ve stocked up.
“We’ve been filling up our food and liquor stock and trying to staff,” said Aris Galios, co-owner of the old-school restaurant Miller’s Pub in the South Loop.
Nearby on Adams, the manager of the independently owned Rosati’s said the restaurant will have an increased inventory of pizza slices already boxed up and ready to go.
The four-day Lollapalooza starts Thursday and is expected to be back at full capacity, with roughly 100,000 daily attendees. After missing last summer because of the threat of the coronavirus, it will easily be Chicago's largest gathering since the pandemic started, and one of the country’s.
This year's festival will look very different than in the past. To gain entry, attendees will have to present their vaccination cards or a printed copy of a negative COVID-19 test that is no more than 72 hours old.
That means that anyone with a four-day pass who isn't vaccinated will have to get tested twice. Furthermore, anyone who isn't vaccinated will have to wear a mask.
Public health officials and others have raised concerns that such a large gathering, even outdoors, risks turning into a super-spreader event.
Despite the recent spike in cases caused by the highly contagious delta variant, Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said this week that she feels comfortable with Lollapalooza going ahead as planned because of the precautions organizers are taking, saying they have gone "above and beyond."
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In addition to the entry requirements, organizers have looked at air ventilation for any indoor spaces, made sure backstage workers are vaccinated, will make masks available and will test ticket-takers.
Although the number of new daily cases in Chicago has climbed, from 104 a week ago to 176 as of Wednesday, the city hasn't had the kind of surge many other parts of the country have experienced in recent weeks, and its daily average number of deaths and hospitalizations have dropped slightly.
"We're taking COVID seriously," Arwady said.
Lollapalooza officials did not immediately respond to a request for further information on its screening process, but on the festival's website, they say that there will be people manning every entryway to search all bags that attendees are carrying as well as make sure nobody is allowed entry carrying anything other than small purses, totes and drawstring bags.
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