How to watch Lollapalooza Chicago 2022: catch the festival’s unmissable moments from home
Missed out on Lolla tickets? Here’s how to watch Lollapalooza Chicago from wherever you are
Lollapalooza festival returns to Grant Park for another four days of tunes on 28 July, bringing with it a packed lineup of artists including Metallica, Green Day and Kygo. There’s nothing quite like the atmosphere of a festival, but when single-day general admission tickets start at $125 and four-day tickets start at £350 it’s an expensive business even before you even think about travel.
That’s why we’ve put together this handy guide to help you watch the festival live stream from the comfort of your own home. Whether you choose to don wellies and a bucket hat for the occasion or start a moshpit in your living room, you’ll be able to watch loads of the headliner acts using Hulu’s live stream. Better still, if you’re missing out on the action because you’re stuck abroad, we’ve got some tips and tricks to help you access the stream wherever you are in the world.
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What is Lollapalooza Chicago?
Lollapalooza, colloquially known as Lolla, is an annual music festival that opened in 1991 as a touring event in North America, stopping in over 20 cities in its heyday. The festival settled in Grant Park, Chicago in 2005 after struggling financially for the previous seven years and has been based there ever since.
Now, the festival attracts over 200,000 attendees and shows a wide range of music artists including hip-hop, alternative rock and techno music; this year there are 170 bands and artists on the lineup. The eight different stages accommodate artists big and small, so it’s the perfect place to wander about and find your next favourite artist. Even if you’re watching the live stream on Hulu, you’ve got plenty of new artists to discover before this year’s big names come on.
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When does it start?
All the festivities start on 28 July 2022 and run for four days until 31 July 2022.
If you’re heading to the festival, we’re only a little jealous but if you’re enjoying the show from home, Hulu’s live stream begins at 1:00 PM and finishes at 11:00 PM (CT). Remember, if you’re using a VPN to tune in from abroad, you’ll have to convert these times to your timezone.
To see which performances will be on throughout the day, take a look at the full Livestream lineup, with timings here.
Who is on the lineup?
Although there are eight stages at the festival, Hulu’s live stream won’t cover everything, and that’s unfortunately the best you’ll be able to find. The stream will be divided into two channels so that you can easily find the artists you want to watch; if you don’t like the first channel, viewers can simply switch over to the next stream.
Here’s a quick summary of the main headliners on Hulu each day. A full list can be found on Hulu’s dedicated Lollapalooza website.
Thursday — Metallica, Jazmine Sullivan, Billy Strings, Tove Lo, The Wombats
Friday — Machine Gun Kelly, Don Toliver, Rezz, Royal Blood, Bob Moses, Coi Leray
Saturday — Kygo, Big Sean, Kaskade, Idles, Wallows, Tomorrow X Together
Sunday — Green Day, Porno for Pyros, J. Hope, Denzel Curry, John Summit, Banks
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How to watch Lollapalooza in the US: Hulu
Unless you’ve splashed out on festival tickets, the only place you’ll be able to watch full performances from this year’s Lollapalooza live stream is on Hulu.
If you’re happy to see ads on your streaming library, Hulu costs $6.99/mth, or you can spend $12.99/mth to access Hulu ad-free. The more pricey version also allows users to download and watch Hulu content on the go. Both plans let users stream on two screens at once and make up to six user profiles. Of course, any subscriber can stream Hulu’s extensive catalogue of content, which includes about 1,650 shows and 2,500 movies on-demand.
Whichever plan you choose, it comes with a 30-day free trial so you can try the service out without committing to a plan.
How to watch Lollapalooza outside the US: A good VPN service
Unfortunately, Hulu is not available outside the US. That means fans travelling abroad will have no way to access the service and its Lollapalooza live stream unless they have access to a VPN that lets them change their browser location. Viewers from abroad will of course still need a Hulu subscription to access the live stream.
Not all VPN services are created equal; whilst most shield your data to keep you safe online, some won’t let you get past geo-blockers, and because there’s a huge range of VPNs available it can be difficult to choose the best service for you. Luckily, we’ve tested loads of them — here are two of our favourites for streaming.
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ExpressVPN: When we tested ExpressVPN, we thought it was one of the best VPN services for streaming. Not only does it help you get past geo-blockers to watch the Lollapalooza live stream and other overseas content, but it also covers five devices with a single subscription. Their customer support is also great — with a 30-day money back guarantee and 24/7 tech support, users can rest assured that help is always on hand to iron out any technical issues. It won’t cost a lot either, because if you follow the link below you can get an extra 3 months free.
NordVPN: Those of you who are keen to keep your browsing private will love NordVPN — an independent audit proved that the company does not record or store any of your data. Furthermore, the VPN provides round-the-clock access to tech support in case of any setup issues. You’re unlikely to need them, though, as the user interface is beautifully intuitive and the super-speedy streaming speeds make it easy to stream Lollapalooza and other live shows hassle-free.