‘No evidence’ Lollapalooza was a super spreader event, Chicago official says

Chicago’s top public health officials said Thursday that there is currently “no evidence” that the Lollapalooza music festival was a super-spreader event for COVID-19. 

Allison Arwady, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said in a news conference that there have been no “unexpected findings” two weeks since the four-day festival began on July 29.

“We’ve had no unexpected findings at this point. There’s no evidence at this point of a super spreader event, and there’s no evidence of substantial impact to Chicago’s COVID epidemiology,” Arwady said.

Only 203 cases have been identified in the two weeks since the festival began, Arwady said. This number includes people who were diagnosed with COVID-19 on or after attending the festival.

Fifty-eight of the cases were among Chicago residents, 138 were not residents of Chicago but lived in Illinois, and seven lived outside of the state. As of Wednesday, there were no hospitalizations or deaths reported, Arwady said.

Over 385,000 people are estimated to have attended the event, of which Arwady said roughly 88-90 percent were vaccinated.

Arwady estimated that four in 10,000 vaccinated attendees, or 0.0004 percent, reported testing positive, while 16 in 10,000 unvaccinated guests reported tested positive.

Lollapalooza was held at full capacity between July 29 and Aug. 1 after the music event was cancelled last year due to the pandemic.

Guests had to provide proof that they were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus in order to enter, or patrons had to show a negative COVID-19 test that was taken within 72 hours of attendance.

Unvaccinated patrons had to wear masks while at the festival outdoors. All patrons had to wear masks at indoor venues, regardless of vaccination status.