If you’ve noticed a large amount of festival coverage on my social media accounts lately it’s because, yes, I did attend two festivals in two weeks. I know, it’s ridiculous, and all I wanted to do afterwards was have a hot bubble bath and watch Gilmore Girls in bed to recover. But I did have a fabulous time so let’s talk about that.
As you know, my first festival was Weekender festival in Jersey. Well the following weekend, I was lucky enough to be asked to go to Lollapalooza festival in Berlin with the lovely people at lastminute.com! They sold exclusive packages to the festival and asked me to come along to try it out. And I have to say, going back to a hotel room after a day of partying in a field is definitely the way forward!!
This was also part of lastminute.com’s #MusicMakesYouTravel initiative that gives you recommendations on places to go on your travels, based on your music tastes (more info here). We had some fun going to some of these places whilst we were in Berlin but I’ll get to that in another post.
And best of all, this was all with my blogger pal Ellie from The Wandering Quinn! Ellie is one of the travel blogging ladies I meet up with for brunch in London every now and then, but it was really lovely to spend some quality 1-on-1 time together. She’s a babe, you should read her blog.
But anyway I’ll stop gushing about the sisterhood, let’s get on with the festival. Here’s everything you need to know about Lollapalooza Berlin.
Lollapalooza Berlin
Line-Up
Other than the fact that the festival is in Berlin, my favourite thing about Lollapalooza was the line-up. The line-up was bloody amazing.
Let’s just get straight to it, Foo Fighters, the Sunday headliners blew my mind with how awesome their set was. They’re one of those bands I always wanted to see live but never managed to get tickets for, so it was a massive bucket list tick to be able to see them! I literally had the best time rocking out to ‘All My Life’ and belting out ‘Best Of You’!
Other highlights included Two Door Cinema Club, Rudimental and Mumford & Sons, so some big names were there.
But I also loved the fact that because this festival was abroad, I got to discover some new German bands! Marteria were so much fun to watch live, the guy took his top off and jumped into the mosh pit and everything. It was rock and roll, kids.
Layout & Stages
With a capacity of 85,000 people, Lollapalooza Berlin is BIG. It has 4 large stages across the field – two Main Stages, the Perry’s Stage and the Alternative Stage. Perry’s stage was in one corner of the field and was all Dance and Drum & Bass music so wasn’t really my vibe, but the other three hosted mainsteam artists I recognised.
What I thought was so amazing though was that the two Main Stages alternated artists, which meant there was no gap between acts! You know like at Glastonbury when there’s a 20 minute gap where you just have to wait? Here you just walk to the stage next door and the act is there straight away. Brilliant idea.
Food
Festival food is life. And I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to eat some delicious street food at Lollapalooza.
I was very happy with how much food was available so there was a lot of choice for where to eat. And I also appreciated that there were a lot of duplicates on the popular options, so there weren’t hoards of people y’know?
Well first up I HAD to have a bit of currywurst whilst I was in Berlin and it was as delicious as I remembered, served with a big ol’ wedge of white bread.
And then of course, if there’s a food van with raclette, I definitely have to have it. So a decent-sized plate of crushed potatoes smothered in molten raclette cheese with pickles on the side from the Chees!us van was exactly what I needed to fulfil all of my festival food hopes and dreams.
Fun Fair
When I read that there was going to be a fun fair at Lolla, I wasn’t that fussed. If my past festival experiences are anything to go by, they’re usually massively overpriced fair rides that don’t feel that safe, so I wasn’t really bothered.
However, the Lollapalooza Fun Fair was something entirely different.
It was a retro 1930s fun fair complete with wooden games and circus tents and a big Ferris Wheel. It definitely felt more fun and wholesome when you don’t have a guy shouting for people to get on the waltzers, ya feel?
I thought it was pretty cute anyway. There was also a giant wooden seesaw and the Absolut Lolla viewing platform in this area, so it was a nice place to hang out for a bit. There was also Kidzapalooza for families, which had lots of things to keep kids entertained.
Fashionpalooza, Art At The Park & Other Areas
Isn’t it just a better festival experience when there’s more going on than the music?!
Well Lolla have lots more going on, including lots of arty things you would expect from a city like Berlin. Art At The Park provided a pop-up art gallery for festival goers and Fashionpalooza was all about cool vintage stalls, a pop-up Levi’s customisation station and lots of opportunities to get hair and make-up done. They even had a tattoo artist on site!
In this Fashionpalooza area they also had a mini mirror maze and a glitter streamer area which was perfect for selfies! Additional fun things like these always make your festival experience, so I totally appreciated them.
Oh and there was also an area called Der Grüne Kiez which is the green, eco-friendly, hippy area. It’s all about sustainability and was another nice place to hang out with a beer.
Talking of being environmentally friendly though, I should mention that at Lollapalooza, you had to pay a 1 EUR deposit on your cup when you ordered a drink at the bar. And at the end of the night you returned it to get your money back. Apparently this is a normal thing at German events in their battle against plastic and it meant that there were no cups strewn across the field at the end of the night, plus no-one throwing cups into the crowd.
SUCH a good idea if you ask me.
VIP Area
Ugh I hate that I’m turning into one of those bloggers that talks about VIP areas now. I promise I’m not that girl!
But in the interest of telling you all about the festival I figured I should tell you there’s a building on the edge of the site that acts as a VIP area. Other than having shelter from the rain and a nice view of the festival, there wasn’t anything particularly fancy in this area, y’know? Another burger van, another bar… the only benefit I found was free WiFi as you don’t get much signal on-site.
But honestly if you’re thinking of buying VIP I’d probably skip it to be honest. Let’s plenty else to keep you entertained at the festival.
Cashless Payments
If you’re thinking of going to Lollapalooza Berlin, it’s really important to note that all of the food vans and bars and stalls do not accept cash or card. They only accept ‘cashless payment’ in the form of your festival wristbands. You can add money to the wristband online before you go but there are stations dotted over the site where you can top up, so it’s actually quite handy.
Although make sure you don’t put too much on as the only way to get the money off is via the website a few days later. And you will forget. I’ve only just remembered mine because I’m writing this blog post…
Getting Home
Transport to and from the festival is a big deal. Because it can really affect your festival experience if it’s a nightmare.
The site of Lollapalooza this year was at Rennbahn Hoppegarten which was about 30 mins outside of central Berlin by train. This meant it was super easy to get to, we just got an ABC ticket from Alexanderplatz and we were good to go.
Getting back was a bit more difficult though.
On the first night we stayed until almost the end but were stuck in such big crowds heading to the train station. It wasn’t too bad as they were doing a lot of crowd control to minimise impact but it still meant we had to wait outside the station for ages and then when they let us in there was a massive push to get on the train.
On the second night we left about half an hour earlier and it was fine. There were still crowds to get onto the train but nowhere near as bad.
So maybe the moral of this story is to leave after the Headliner and don’t stay to watch the final band (which conveniently at Lollapalooza isn’t the Headliner so that crowds will trickle out!).
Accommodation
Lollapalooza Berlin isn’t a camping festival and like I said, I got to go home to a lush hotel room after hanging about in a field all day. Which literally, was the best thing ever. This is how I always want to do festivals (Is this what turning 30 is like?).
I stayed at the amazing Park Inn hotel in Alexanderplatz and I just adored my room. I have a thing for a good bath and this one was unreal – I got to chill with a face mask and watch TV whilst in the bath! Heaven!
It was also in a fab location and did a top notch brekkie so I’d definitely recommend a visit if you’re in Berlin.
Verdict
Lolla Berlin was a lot of fun. Amazing artists, lots of fun things to do, great food and crazy people, I really had a great weekend. And the fact that I got to spend some time in Berlin at the same time was awesome and has definitely inspired me to do more festivals in the rest of Europe! Thanks for having me lastminute.com!
There you have it, everything you need to know about Lollapalooza Festival 2017!
Would you like to go to Lollapalooza Festival? Let me know in the comments of tweet me @HeelsInBackpack!
Total Blogger Transparency: I enjoyed a complimentary visit to Lollapalooza Berlin with lastminute.com but all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. I wouldn’t play you like that, shorty.
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