Festival Review: Lollapalooza Berlin Day 1

Singing in the Rain – this was definitely the motto for the first day of Lollapalooza Berlin!

When the festival’s doors opened on July 12th, it had already been raining throughout most of the night and without any end in sight. Still, streams of people well-equipped with rain ponchos and waterproof excitement flooded the entryways and entered the festival ground located in and around Berlin’s Olympiastadion. Since this year’s edition was already Lollapalooza’s 10th birthday, a giant banner with a cake illustration hung centered at the stadium walls.

With six different stages, Lollapalooza made sure everybody would be able to find something to enjoy. The two main stages, Telekom Main Stage and Main Stage South, were located in the lower parts of the grass area which also contained the ferris wheel among various food and merch stands. The third big stage, Perry’s Stage, where the DJ-sets took place was based at the far end inside the stadium. Further down again, hidden behind some trees, little festival goers awaited a great time at the Kidzapalooza Stage. Near the food court was the smaller Alternative Stage and in the Fashionpalooza area, there was the Fashionstage. This is also where both Days kicked off with an Indie Pop Party by King Kong Kicks.

On this rainy Saturday, Mico opened up the Telekom Main Stage at 12:35pm. Despite playing this early the young Indie Pop singer from Toronto already gathered quite a decent crowd and also had a lot of fans singing along. Quite impressive for his first festival. For one song there was also a fan project organized and soon you could see numerous little stars floating above the audience’s heads. Mico’s dynamic and happy personality created good vibes straight away and made it easy to defy and forget about the grey and wet weather.

Just five minutes after Mico had concluded his set, Benjamin Ingrosso took to Main Stage South. Even before the Swedish singer came on stage the fans had already started the party and were singing and dancing. Ingrosso took on this energy and transported it onto the stage. He interacted with fans by pointing at them or sharing smiles and smirks and made sure everyone had a great time. Benjamin Ingrosso is only 27 but his stage presence definitely gave the impression of an experienced, mature performer and made him seem much older. Part of this is probably because Ingrosso has been on stages even early on in his life and won a Swedish TV show at age 9.

In a short break, Benjamin Ingrosso shares that he had his best Döner ever here in Berlin, Kreuzberg specifically, and later he tried to sing ’99 Luftballons’ (’99 Red Balloons’), showing off his knowledge of German culture. Little did he know a lot of Germans don’t know their own country’s best songs by heart and so this singalong didn’t work out very well. Nevertheless, the crowd truly had a lot of fun throughout this set.

At 2pm, one of the few German acts Kapa Tult started their set at the Alternative Stage. The German female-fronted four piece is known for witty, socially critical songs, all in German language. Releasing their first album in 2023, they have now played shows with Madsen and Tocotronic as well as they have embarked on their first headline tour. Still, singer Inga said they thought no one would show up at this show at Lollapalooza. Well, they were wrong. There was a crowd and it was surely enjoying Kapa Tult’s set.

Another person who was pleased that people showed up to his set was Mark Ambor, who played on Main Stage South at 2:40pm. He explained he’s from New York, so very very far away, and it made him extremely happy to see people on the other side of the world singing along to his songs and enjoying his music. That people enjoy his music was quite obvious at Lollapalooza and you didn’t even have to take a glimpse at the front row because you could already hear the fans scream the lyrics from afar. Ambor appreciated this affection and at a later time in his set came down to the barrier and closer to his fans. He closed off the show with his popular song ‘Belong Together’ and a big smile.

Next up was LA based alternative pop duo Magdalena Bay on the Telekom Main Stage. Singer Mica Tenenbaum was dressed in all blue, with blue face paint completing the look. During the set she transformed into a sunflower for one song and Matthew Lewin, the other part of the duo, transformed into an all-red devil-like creature that dragged her down. Sadly their strong and colourful visuals couldn’t develop their full potential in this flat and grey weather but the winged mirror or frame that was shown on the LED-screen definitely looked impressive. 

The next act on this stage was Ashnikko. Her powerful and also very sexual performance and dances had the crowd in chokehold. Every time Ashnikko or her two dancers kicked their legs in the air or did another crazy dance move it evoked joined screams from the audience. The energy that Ashnikko and her dancers held throughout the whole show was very impressive.

Back to Main Stage South, The Last Dinner Party played at 6:10pm. The audience was mostly filled with Gracie Abrams fans already, who would be next, so the general soft but strong vibe was already quite fitting. The Last Dinner Party had one of the most layered stage setups so far, with two big banners hanging on both sides of the stage and an even bigger banner in the background. In between there was a set of white columns, referring to those from Ancient Greece. Everything was in blue and white. Singer Abigail Morris’ vibe was somewhere between Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean when she threw around her voluminous dark hair and Pride and Prejudice when she dreamily danced around the stage. Around this time, it began to drizzle again but no one really minded it. The all-female band seemed to have a lot of fun on stage. During the last song, Abigail Morris also hopped down to the barricade to be up and close with the fans.

Five minutes later, K-pop superstars IVE took to the Telekom Main Stage. The female six-piece opened the show with ‘REBEL HEART’. Dressed in all white, they danced all the way through till the end of the show. The young girls gave it their all and so did the fans. Each step in the choreography was on point and the fans hyped up everything that happened on stage. After covering Icona Pop’s ‘All Night’, IVE closed the show with ‘After LIKE’ and left the stage at 8:05pm.

Back to Main Stage South for the last time this Saturday, the long-awaited Gracie Abrams entered the stage at 8:10pm. Despite the rain, her fans had been waiting for hours but now it was finally time to scream along to hits like ‘I love you, I’m sorry’ and ‘That’s So True’. The fans’ signature bow ties wobbled along as the fans jumped up and down and had the best time ever. For a lot of the songs, Abrams played guitar but whenever she didn’t she liked to run around the stage to be near as many of the fans as possible. She also pointed at fans she recognized from other shows and generally made it feel like a big family.

The rain only added to the atmosphere. The song to end the set was ‘Close To You’ and everyone, whether close to the stage or outside of the both FOS areas, jumped and danced along.

Shortly before Gracie Abrams left the stage, inside the stadium Armin van Buuren had just started his DJ-set. His stage was built inside of a circle-shaped construction called the “Orb”, which gave the stage a futuristic look. The lights right below the stadium’s roof danced to the rhythm while lasers, pyros and fireworks enhanced the DJ’s performance. A big LED-screen in the background showed animations of thunderstorms, galaxies and occasionally some lyrics. The song to close the set was ‘Euphoria’ and indeed, the crowd was quite euphoric as another row of fireworks went off. Then the stadium went dark and the fans slowly started to climb up the massive staircase to the outside.

Simultaneously, Justin Timberlake had played his show at the Telekom Main Stage and was now in his last 15 minutes. During his set the rain had intensified but it didn’t stop the audience from singing and dancing along. To the crowd’s delight, Timberlake used the stage’s catwalk quite frequently, but only after putting on the hood of his jacket. His many background dancers mostly remained on the main part of the stage but were well visible via the LED-screens on the sides. Justin Timberlake played hits like ‘Cry Me A River’, ‘CAN’T STOP THE FEELING!’ and ended the show with ‘Until the End of Time’. The soaked but happy crowd slowly made their way up towards the stadium and eventually home to get enough rest for yet another day packed with music and memories at Lollapalooza. Check out all the photos here!