Lollapalooza look back: Fest officials said they wouldn’t check vaccine cards closely; rigor of contact tracing questioned

Shortly after the sun set on Lollapalooza 2021, after the Foo Fighters closed with “Everlong” and Young Thug wrapped his short performance, festival organizers announced they will return to Grant Park in July.

By many measures, Lollapalooza had made a triumphant comeback to the city, even as Chicago experienced a surge in coronavirus cases thanks to the highly infectious delta variant. Hospital transports and arrests were down from 2019. Severe storms and unbearable heat didn’t make an appearance, like in years past. And officials said only about 200 festivalgoers had tested positive for COVID-19 after attending Lollapalooza, with it serving as a model for other pandemic-era festivals.

“We were just really pleased with how the event went,” Chicago public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady told the Tribune in a recent interview.

But could it have gone better? Emails recently obtained by the Tribune show organizers warned the city that security personnel would not be closely inspecting vaccination cards at entrance gates. Lollapalooza organizers also successfully requested a looser testing standard that was used