This was my first year body painting at Lollapalooza in Chicago, what a kick ass time! I love my job!
Once I entered Lollapalooza gates in the heart of downtown, it was a rock take over of Chicago with streets blocked off and about 8-10 stages surrounding the famous Chicago fountain. The Original High 5 Man, a hysterical character dressed in crazy colors and looking like a redneck super hero, was on the scene giving high fives to everyone in sight. Yeah, I high 5’d him, how could you not????
Pashur painting - the long body paint line awaits.
Lucky for me, I was set up right next to a stage where bands were doing small sets and small doses of Q&A - so I was able to hear cool tunes while I body painted and learn a bit about the bands without ever leaving (which was great as I had a crazy long line - see the long line in the pic?). Thankfully I had two cool assistants to keep the line from dissolving into chaos and chat with the patrons while they were waiting to get painted.
Over the three day event I did around 300 small body paintings, ranging from cute to bizarre, including requests such as Unicorns farting rainbows, Bass Nectar elephants, T-Rex spewing a rainbow, a clown eating pizza, an angry fish and a wicked lotus flower. Hey, it was Lollapalooza.
"New Order" playing their epic tunes.
One of the perks during my breaks was that I got to check out a few bands perform on the other stages. I feel lucky to have seen New Order perform several of their classics, along with Queens of the Stone Age, Ellie Goulding, and NIN perform! Not a bad way to spend your break time. The best part was on the last night after I was done body painting, I was able to attend "The Cure" concert and see them rock out for their entire show. It was incredible. INCREDIBLE.
"The Cure" rocking out!
Unfortunately I didn't get to see The Killers, Imagine Dragons or Indie Pop because of how busy I was, but I did get to see two bands that rocked out in the booth I was body painting in. The bands were (1) Wild Cub - who had an 80's retro sound, and (2) ReignWolf - a solo artist with a passion for gritty rock. It poured out of each song. At one point he played the drums, guitar and sang at the same time... impressive.
Food highlights included a hot dog from a place called Chubby Weiners and scoring a free cheeseburger from a chick I painted at another festival! Woo hoo!
Next stop: Sturgis!
