Health officials in Chicago, Illinois have tied 203 cases of COVID-19 to Lollapalooza. Moreover, none of the 203 cases have been tied any hospitalizations or deaths as of yet.
“Nothing unexpected here,” Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said.
“No sign of a ‘superspreader event’. But clearly, with hundreds of thousands of people attending Lollapalooza, we would expect to see some cases.”
The four-day festival ran from July 29 through August 1 while featuring performances from Miley Cyrus, Kaytranada, Young Thug, Roddy Ricch, Post Malone and several others. Estimates suggest approximately 385,000 people attended the event, leaving the infection rate at less than 1%. While more COVID-19 cases linked to the music festival could pop up, health officials are fairly hopeful that is not a likely outcome.
“We would have seen a surge if we were going to see a surge at this point,” Arwady added.
Unfortunately, the low infection rate Lollapalooza maintained is not all that common across the United States. The number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases has jumped by more than 100% within the last two weeks, primarily in the southeast and portions of the southwest. Potentially, other music festivals could use Lollapalooza’s COVID-19 protocols to foster a safer environment. Within the next few weeks, the nation will brace for Broccoli City in Washington, D.C., Rolling Loud in New York, Lights On in California and Bonnaroo in Tennessee.
