July 30 marks the third day of Lollapalooza, and for the festival, another day means another slew of performances from its lineup of more than 170 artists.

Some highlights from the day include hidden-gem Meet Me @ The Altar’s enthusiastic show at the BMI stage, Wallows’ afternoon set at the T-Mobile stage and J Cole’s headlining performance to close out the night. 

Here’s buzz’s rundown of the third day of Lollapalooza, including what people had to say, which artists to look out for and a look into the day-to-day happenings at one of the biggest music festivals in the country. 

CRAWLERS bring energy, togetherness to Bud Light Seltzer stage 

Elliot Whitman of Salt Lake City attended the Rolling Loud music festival earlier this month in Miami and found an experience starkly different from that of Lollapalooza.  

“Everyone is looking out for each other, and everybody is a lot more empathetic here,” they said before watching English rock band CRAWLERS on Saturday afternoon at the Bud Light Seltzer stage. 

Whitman said they’re “definitely” a CRAWLERS fan. 

“I’ve been a CRAWLERS fan for like a year,” they said. “I only discovered them with my friend group last year.” 

While CRAWLERS was on Whitman’s to-see list, they added that they and their friends came to see “as many (bands) as possible.”

CRAWLERS, a four-person English rock band, took the stage about 10 minutes late before launching into an energetic set that included crowd favorites like “Feminist Radical” and “Come Over (again),” along with a couple of unreleased tracks like “I Don’t Want It.”

Lead singer Holly Minto led the band’s heavy style of brooding English garage and punk rock, mixed with the feminist-punk influences of bands like X-Ray Spex. 

CRAWLERS embodied the empathy that Whitman described earlier. 

“Who here has anxiety?” Minto asked the crowd. Many hands shot up. 

“Look at you, you’re doing great!” Minto said after applauding those who raised their hands for coming to the crowded festival. 

Meet Me @ The Altar captivates audience with infectious energy

Saturday’s set wasn’t Sam Ameguin’s first time seeing Meet Me @ The Altar. She saw the band perform at Chicago’s Riot Fest in 2019 and said it’s exciting to watch the band perform again. 

“I’ve gotten more into them since (Riot Fest),” Ameguin said. “I know they’re playing a lot of new music today, so I’m interested in seeing what they’re gonna play.”

Meet Me @ The Altar took to the BMI stage on Saturday afternoon, playing a 40-minute set that was over in a blink of an eye. In comparison to the BMI stage’s size, the number of festivalgoers at the band’s set was substantial, expanding to the edges of the standing space. 

The pop-punk trio played some of its older tunes, like “Garden” and “Beyond My Control,” captivating audiences with infectious positive energy and headbanging tunes. 

Like Ameguin predicted, the band played a couple of new tunes, like its unreleased single, “Kool,” which, as singer Edith Johnson announced during the set, is from the band’s upcoming debut album.

FLETCHER jokes with festivalgoers, thanks them during set at T-Mobile stage

For some fans who couldn’t secure concert tickets to see FLETCHER during her tour, attending Lollapalooza was a welcome substitute.

Mikayla Johnson, Liz Schormann and Claudia Fielmeyes stood in the dusty concert space near the T-Mobile stage in preparation for FLETCHER’s set at 3 p.m.  

Fielmeyes said FLETCHER is one of Schormann’s favorite artists, yet she wasn’t able to see them until now. 

“She’s been trying to get concert tickets for a while, so we were also like, ‘We’re not gonna miss today when she’s here with the rest of the people we wanted to see anyways,’” Fielmeyes said. 

“I’m just really excited because I wasn’t able to get concert tickets,” Schormann said. “So it’s like, this kind of made up for that.”

FLETCHER started her set with “girls girls girls,” taking the stage wearing red shorts, an unbuttoned patterned jacket, a black bra-like top, black boots and winged teal eyeliner. 

She let her audience know how excited she was to perform at her first festival main stage and took a break from the sentimentality to joke about having an accidental nip slip during the show. 

Other tunes on the setlist included “Undrunk,” “Becky’s So Hot” and “Bitter.” FLETCHER ended the show with a fitting outro, saying, “I love you all, let’s all get drunk. Okay, I’ll see you guys later.”

Wallows’ Lollapalooza set engenders mosh pits, crowd engagement 

As Bella Main and Audrey Steffes talked after Wallows’ 5 p.m. show at the T-Mobile stage, they agreed that “Are You Bored Yet?” — the band’s closing song — was their favorite moment of the set. 

Steffes described the set as being “upbeat but very chill at the same time,” comparing it to indie-pop artist Gus Dapperton.

Main agreed, saying she enjoyed the atmosphere of the set.

“Everyone seemed really nice,” Main said. “Sometimes I feel like people get like a little pushy and stuff, but everyone was really chill.” 

Wallows’ set was especially popular among the festivalgoers, many crowding around the T-Mobile stage to get a better glimpse of the band, especially when lead singer, Dylan Minnette jumped off the stage to interact with fans. 

During certain tunes, Minnette encouraged the crowd to join in the band’s excitement, resulting in a mosh pit during songs like “Scrawny,” “Talk Like That” and “OK.”

Before the last song of the set, Minnette took a moment to reflect on how the band first attended Lollapalooza as festivalgoers in 2013. In 2018, the band played a midday set at Tito’s Handmade Vodka stage. 

Now, as of Saturday, Wallows can officially say that it’s played a main stage at Lollapalooza, which Minnette acknowledged as a full-circle moment. 

By the last song of the set, the audience actively sang along with the band as it played one of its more popular songs, “Are You Bored Yet?”

J Cole rolls back the years for massive, adoring crowd

A Saturday night show at Lollapaloozas’s T–Mobile stage marked the third time that L.A. native and J Cole fan Derek Chen saw the rapper in concert, as well as the third different state in which he saw him. 

“I saw him in Vegas and Dallas,” Chen said.

When comparing Lollapalooza to California festival Coachella, Chen and a friend explained that Lollapalooza was smaller but “cleaner” and had another vital component: “flush toilets.” 

“2014 Forest Hills Drive,” he said, in reference to J Cole’s first album, “that was my s***.”

Chan and hundreds of other fans, who crowded around the T–Mobile stage were in luck when J Cole played tunes from his first album, “2014 Forest Hills Drive.” 

“2014 Forest Hills Drive,” he said. “That was my s***.”

To a sea of concertgoers, Cole thanked those who had been listeners since “2014 Forest Hills,” before playing classics like the virginity-ballad “Wet Dreamz,” and “Love Yourz.”

Bas, a fellow member of the Dreamville rap group with J Cole, also appeared twice within the set to perform songs “100 . m i l’” and “The Jackie.”  

Willow delights longtime fans with hit tunes during nighttime Coinbase set

WILLOW’s unexpectedly large turnout at the Coinbase stage Saturday night didn’t seem to phase the pop-punk artist at all. In fact, chants of her name seemed to spur the Willow on as she kicked off her set with her hit tune “t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l.”

For listeners like Grace Brown, WILLOW’s music has played a role in her self-development. 

“She’s even inspired me on my own spiritual journey to become myself and to know myself,” Brown said. “So to see somebody that’s inspired me, it’s kind of a good feeling.

Brown said “PrettyGirlz” is one song that she hoped WILLOW would perform Saturday night, while her companion Alexis Booker said she hoped the artist would play one of her most popular tunes, “Wait a Minute!”

Booker, 21, has listened to WILLOW since she was 11.

“For a few years, I kind of stopped listening to her, and then I heard ‘Wait a Minute!,’ and ‘Marceline’ when I was 15 and fell back in love with her,” Booker said. “Oh, God. I have to see ‘Wait a Minute!’ That’s why I’m here, I f****** love ‘Wait a Minute!’ so much.”

Luckily for Booker, WILLOW played the song right after performing an unreleased tune and “Meet Me At Our Spot,” another hit tune. The tunes were well-received by the audience, who sang along to the lyrics. 

“Her voice is so unique,” Booker said. “When she was starting out with ‘Whip My Hair,’ her voice was wasn’t fully there. But when she started putting out albums, her sound grew and her voice improved so much. Her voice is just amazing.”

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