The American Lollapalooza music festival is coming to Israel next summer. Lollapalooza Israel will be held on August 20-22, 2013, in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park.
“I’m working on something really big,” Ilan Elkayam, the CEO of Plug Productions Generator, told Haaretz at the end of July. Attempts to get more out of him simply produced an even more mysterious answer: “We’re not talking about a performance by Bruce Springsteen in Israel, but something much bigger than a Springsteen, Red Hot Chili Peppers or Madonna concert. In another week the entire world will know.”
A week passed and the official announcement hit the world press: The American Lollapalooza music festival is coming to Israel next summer. Lollapalooza Israel will be held on August 20-22, 2013, in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park. It will be the first international music festival held in Israel, and dozens of foreign artists and musicians, some very famous, others not, will take part. The list of acts will be released toward the end of the year.
Lollapalooza was founded in 1991 in Chicago by singer Perry Farrell as a farewell tour for his band Jane’s Addiction (which later got back together and appeared in Israel last year ). Farrell said he was excited about how the event had expanded around the world. The festival ran every year from 1991 to 1997, took a break for five years and restarted in 2003. Israel will now join Chile and Brazil as the event’s third location outside the U.S. festival’s site – Chicago’s Grant Park.
Lollapalooza Israel is being produced and promoted by Plug Productions Generator and NMC United, an Israeli home entertainment and music distributor and publisher. The Israeli producers say they expect the festival to be more than a one-off; they plan on it becoming an annual tradition.
The Brazilian and Chilean versions are limited compared with the Chicago original; still, appearing in Chile in 2011 were acts like Kanye West, Jane’s Addiction, 30 Seconds to Mars, the National, the Drums, the Killers, Los Bunkers, Deftones, Cypress Hill and the Flaming Lips. This year Bjork, Foo Fighters and Arctic Monkeys appeared in Chile.
Lollapalooza tries to offer a wide mix of genres including alternative rock, heavy metal, punk and hip hop, as well as dance, comedy and crafts. It also provides a platform for nonprofit and political groups.
