Lollapalooza 2025 - Day Four Report

by Anthony Kuzminski

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Sunday August 3, 2025 - Grant Park, Chicago: Lollapalooza 2025 ended on Sunday and capped the four days with several astonishing sets and several highlights capping an excellent year all around for performances and weather. During Finneas' set he mentioned how he loved playing Lollapalooza and 'it is the best of the American festivals.." No other major festival is set in the heart of their downtown like Lollapalooza and Chicago. The food, amenities and even the cleanliness of the streets and stages surpasses any other festival I have ever been to. here is the best of the final day at Lollapalooza.

Laila! 1:30
The nineteen-year-old Brooklyn native hit the T-Mobile stage early in the day delivering an alternative R&B set filled with beats and hooks. The singer draws heavy influences from nineties R&B acts like TLC, Lauryn Hill, and Janet Jackson's creative peak but it feels current. Performing songs from Gap Year! she did the impossible; gripped the crowd with the first set of the day.

BoyNextDoor 2:15
The south Korean K-pop boy band played AT Lakeshore as the sun was hitting the field, and they took the stage with a full-fledged band. The six members of BoyNextDoor were in designer t-shirts and jeans delivering dance moves and their infectious brand of K-pop. It's hard not to be swayed by the band's charisma and energy during their high energy set.

Willow Avalon 2:50
Willow Avalon was tucked away at the Grove stage, with sun bursting down in the middle of the field, and surrounded by trees, her country-western tinged set was a reprieve from the rest of the festival. Performing songs from his 2025 album Southern Belle Raisin' Hell Avlon strode the stage with great swagger and singing with her twang, she was more than endearing, but a breath of fresh air during a festival dominated by hip-hop and pop. Avalon has set the stage for future Lollapalooza performances and a larger audience.

KATSEYE 3:30
Nothing about KATSEYE should interest me and yet they gave a standout performance on the final day of Lollapalooza. Music by committee has never moved me and yet, a lot of the K-pop music is designed by managers and labels looking to cash in. These acts have often been derided over the years (New Kids on the Block, Pussycat Dolls, Take That) but times change and so do opinions, if the music can penetrate beyond prejudices. KATSEYE is being framed as the first global girl group with members hailing from the United States, South Korea, Switzerland, and the Philippines. Being put together by the reality competition series Dream Academy, they are tapping into the K-pop model, but with a slightly more American in musical style. For just under an hour they fascinated the Lollapalooza crowd, singing, dancing, and swaying along to their short catalog of hits with "Gabriela" being the set highlight (featuring a Charli XCX co-write).

Finneas 5:45
Finneas last played the salt shed in February, an expansive set that surprised even some of his biggest fans, where he played a tight and focused set that drew from his life experiences. It was stunning just how good it was, everyone knows him as Billie Eilish's brother and partner in crime, but his own voice soared that night, and it showed he has somebody to take note of even when he's not collaborating with his sister. At Lollapalooza, Finneas once again performed a tight set, more low key then several other Lollapalooza sets, but every bit as powerful.

Finneas previously played Lollapalooza twice with his sister, but this was the first time he stood behind his solo material. What we did not know was he was going to invite Ashe to perform songs from their new band called the Favors, and their forthcoming album coming out on September 19th. "The Little Mess You Made," "The Hudson" and "Till Forever Fall Apart" featured strong Buckingham/Nicks/Fleetwood Mac vibes as Finneas and Ashe played off one another as two people coming to terms with their relationship foreshadowing the next chapter in his incredible career.

Dominic Fike 6:30
The most surprising set of day four belonged to Dominic Fike. The set relied focused on hip-hop, indie rock and alternative, which showed Fike as a man who can wear many hats (even though he spent half of the set shirtless). Fike's set has the potential to be studied for years for intimacy, which he delivered despite performing on the biggest stage of the festival. At one point he talked about how he was living in a dorm with a woman who played Coldplay's Parachutes album all the time and he admitted he had a unwarranted prejudice against the band and then proceeded to play an absolutely flawless version of "Yellow" featuring the band around his boxers that said "Gulf of Mexico." While covers are nothing new at festivals, he performed "Yellow" in such a gentle manner that it was impossible to not take note of his earnestness and bullseye performance of the song. The end of his set was particularly moving with sturdy performances of "King of Everything" and "Mamam's Boy," but it was the final song that left everyone speechless. He brought his baby son out on stage (who had ear protection), and he performed an unreleased song "All Hands on Deck" on toy instruments with his young son looking on. It was possibly the most tender moment in the festival's history. Upon the song's conclusion, he picked up his son, gave the peace sign to the crowd and slowly walked off the stage with the camera following him.

Sabrina Carpenter 8:30
Sabrina Carpenter's festival closing headline set hit all the marks it needed to, high energy, nostalgic kitsch, dancing and the unexpected. Carpenter has been working in the industry for the better part of fifteen years and despite playing Lollapalooza a few years back, it wasn't until the release of "Espresso" that her star launched into the stratosphere. Performing eleven songs from 2024's Short n' Sweet, Carpenter kept the crowd moving and shaking throughout her 80-minute performance. The stage looked like a variety show from the seventies and even had commercial interludes made as if they were from the same period.

The highlight of Carpenter's set was when she said she invited some locals out to join her. She introduced Earth, Wind & Fire to sing "Let's Groove" and "September" with her and to my surprise, the crowd didn't miss a beat and provided a reaction as strong as they did on the show closer "Espresso." She even proposed marriage to three members of TWICE during her set and for "Don't Smile" she went out to a crane in the crowd and performed the song from above. Her latest single, "Manchild" made its live debut at Lollapalooza proving "Espresso" was no fluke as it captures the essence of pop music. Her entire performance was a winking one where she's aware of her own pop sensibilities and how ridiculous they may be, but it also shows she likes to have fun with her image, likes to play it up and let the music do the talking.

Where Does Lollapalooza Go From Here?
When you run a festival as large as Lollapalooza it's inevitable there are criticisms from the media and fans, some of it deserved, much of it not, however, when you can sell 460,000 tickets to the festival, you must be doing something right. The headline performances really covered a lot of ground for Gen Z, but one can't help but feel that the festival may become even more indestructible if they appealed to some of the older generations who attended the festival in the nineties and during its first decade in Chicago. While Korn was a bold choice for a headliner in 2025, placing them up against Olivia Rodrigo was a losing battle. Lollapalooza should consider a "Legends slot" which Glastonbury has, with a Sunday afternoon performance at their Pyramid stage which has traditionally featured acts with a hefty catalog of hits such as Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Rod Stewart, Kylie Minogue, Lionel Richie, Barry Gibb, and several others. There could be a key slot each day covering legends, Lollapalooza alumni, and even a set focusing on a Chicago artist of which they are plenty from the rock, blues, soul, and hip-hop communities. It would be an extra selling point for some locals to want to see and based on the surprise appearances by Weezer and Earth, Wind and Fire, it's hard not to imagine that these artists would draw for every generation. The festival is one of the biggest and best in North America and is slated to stay in Chicago through 2032, but it would be interesting to see them be daring with some future bookings and shine a light on the local culture, since Chicago is their current home.

2025 will go down in the books as a big and bold year for the festival, one where the women performers rose to the challenge and delivered several knockout performances, proving they are amongst the biggest and best performers in the world. The performances by Otoboke Beaver, Girl Tones, Gracie Abrams, Doechii, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and TWICE will be viewed as a turning point for the festival. Let's see what magic Lollapalooza can conjure up for 2026, but until then, these women artists proved that not only did they earn the headliner status, but they delivered sets fans will talk about years from now.

Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and Special Features Editor for the antiMUSIC Network. His daily writings can be read at The Screen Door. He has seen over 2,000 artists perform in his life and has covered Lollapalooza in depth for fifteen years. He can be contacted at tonykAT antiMUSIC DOT com and can be followed on Twitter

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