Perry’s Stage was lit at Lollapalooza

Since 1991, the music festival known as Lollapalooza has explored all types of music with a diverse lineup. The popularity of electronic dance music eventually earned the genre its own stage once it found a residence in the Windy City and was named after co-founder Perry Farrell.

Perry's Stage continues to be one of the most active areas on the grounds of Lollapalooza in Downtown Chicago and a place to people watch to see how they are dressed for the occasion. For four days beginning on August 3, 2023 party people joined together to dance outdoors come rain or shine. Some sporadic showers didn't stop revelers from dancing in the mud and sliding around to some groovy tunes.

Out and proud musician J. Worra played an early time slot on Thursday and then met backstage to chat about the journey to becoming a DJ. “Worra is actually my mother's maiden name,” she explained and confessed she hopes to have a collaboration with Kaskade in the future.

On her hit remix of Chelley's “Took the Night” she stated, “I always played that song when I was DJing at Progress Bar Chicago years ago. Everyone would go crazy so when I signed with Sony Music's Ultra I asked if I could remix it so I was sent the stems right away and I dove in!”

She returns to Chicago in December to play at Concord Music Hall as a headliner.

Australian producer made waves on Perri's Stage later that evening as Dom Dolla brought along a special friend. After a five-year performance hiatus singer Nelly Furtado was worth the wait and came dressed for the occasion to join Dom for “Eat Your Man” adding in a few mashups.

Diplo shut things down with a fiery reign that lasted until 9:45 p.m. then after parties ensued.

Friday's festivities began with another Australian disc jockey named Ninajirachi waking up the attendees with some groovy tunes. Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal as Diesel played powerful bangers at 6 p.m. on the same day.

The Land from Down Under also influenced another mixmaster named Wax Motif who displayed a strong confidence with his set on Sunday afternoon. The crowd waved handmade Ws in the air to signal their celebration and support of Wax. He spoke backstage about the G House movement, “It's essentially putting rap vocals on house beats. I'm really into rap, but it was not easy to make a name for myself at first. Now this type of music is fairly common.”

This was his second time playing Lollapalooza with the first being in 2017 and has returned often to play venues such as Radius Chicago in the past.

The now Los Angeles-based artist created his namesake from Wax being a reference to vinyl and Motif being a theme, “I had a few other names, but nothing came up when I googled Wax Motif so I went with it!”

His dream vocalist collaborations include The Weeknd and Drake, but within the DJ scene he mentioned Skrillex, “I would love to pick his brain in the studio!”

Wax Motif played an after-show at Concord Music Hall with a 360-degree set with dance fans surrounding him on all sides later at night.

Major players Gorgon City, Afrojack and Alan Walker followed him then headliners Louis the Child brought surprises to spectators at the end. Hailing from Winnetka, Illinois, Robby Hauldren and Frederic J. Kennett have made it big in the EDM world and have come a long way since I interviewed them back in 2014 at the festival.

Effervescent voices Suki Waterhouse and Claire Rosinkranz popped up in person to perform onstage for their individual collaborations together in support of Louis the Child that night.

Rosinkranz met up for a brief interview before her performance to talk about songwriting since she was eight years old, “I have been writing songs since I was a little bean and I kept doing it! I watched my parents play music and my dad worked on it with me in the studio.”

Her inspirations are everywhere she stated, “I am constantly going through changes and these are my formative years. My debut album Just Because was made from my life as an 18-year-old and now all of it is documented!” [laughs]

Rosinkranz's song “Walls” was taken from her unreleased music collection and adapted by Louis the Child.

The immersive experience surrounding Perry's Stage that was cultivated and produced by Solomon Group which has grown to a massive level and still continues to evolve. See what comes next for the dance crowd in the future at lollapalooza.com.