Clubbing Package Pt.15. Lollapalooza @ The Grant Park + Radius @ Chicago

Last Clubbing Post:

Main Plot Starts Here

Welcome to Chicago, says the Airport, and I thought I heard the city. John Summit’s hometown. Hey, I’ve heard loads of good things about you. Treat me well! I will leave a good word. Although it doesn’t matter, I will leave a good word.

Windy City

Running on 2 hours of sleep, I struggled through the airport and the Uber and arrived at the hotel. Pretended to work remotely for < 1 hour but logged 8 hours. Missed texts from my manager/coworker. Guess my work finally yielded some importance?

I asked the front desk about breakfast, and the front desk lady, after knowing my room number being 420, laughed out loud, the kind of laughter accompanied by wrinkles on her nose. The kind of laughter where she needed to bend over a little. 420! She said, That is a good number. She winked.

420. I think this is meant to be fam.

I woke up, had a false alarm because I thought I slept through my date with Bhakti.

Windy City did my hair. I hung out with Bhakti. Toured her apartment, walked around a park, ate good Japanese food, and got good food and liquor on the “Newbury St” in Chicago. Bhakti is building a life of her own right now, and I wish I could start mine too. I do want to feel capable.

Facetimed a frog and multitasked through some company training jargon and a school course assignment (ChatGPT). It’s funny seeing his sleeping schedule leaning towards a normal human — no offense, I mean, what are you gonna do.

Lolla… And Tequilla

Thursday it is. Slept at 12 and woke up around 9:30. Called the school course counselor, did one LeetCode question, biked in the gym for a little while because the Hyatt gym is so fancy that I need to pretend to work out, and I started showering, taking shots, doing makeup, and banging Tomorrowland sets.

I UberEats a 200mL Tequila bottle because I don’t like the Baileys I got yesterday. I texted the Uber driver, “don’t let them see what I ordered lol.” She replied, “I got you.”

Evidence of blurred wrong-doing.

Not gonna lie, it was those 4 shots that made me survive the walk to the Grant Park. Again, I was by myself, but not even by myself. I don’t even need to think. Following the groups of ravers would suffice. They always stand out.

Lolla I am fucking coming.

Still drunk. I realized this by checking my album the next day. Not pretty!

I arrived at Grant Park and I was impressed by the bijillion people at Lolla. People people people. People mountain people sea. It was just so many fucking people. I fucking love it. Alcohol made me outgoing. I talked to guest service; I talked to retailers; I talked to strangers (how I got the photos). I finally navigated to the stage called Perry’s / renamed Dollapalooza because of Dom Dolla.

Gigantic park, gigantic crowd.

It was great timing. I started going to the bathroom 4-5 times in a row, and that was how I knew I was drunk enough and sobering up. I managed to sober up most of my drunk ass before Cloonee goes on. The staged shimmered with red banners and a huge hand-script style “CLOONEE.” The crowd started surging. It started with a moan from Stephanie. Cloonee went on stage.

Cloonee

Cloonee. Freaky!

You call her Stephanie, I call her Headphanie!!! What does that even mean? Does it even matter? I was jumping up and down like a monkey, but no way I could match the energy of the frat bro and sis near me. They are all professional ravers, carrying water bottles in backpacks with pipes and shit.

Holy god. I was seeing everything, hearing all the bass, smelling everything. Some people were taking edibles. Some vaping. Some smoking. The 420 went directly into my nose. Give me a hit! It was a mixture of heightened senses, over-the-bench low frequencies, and so many bodies. By bodies, I mean bodies. People’s bodies are bumping into one another. Some bros were not wearing a shirt, and still they bumped. I was swaying with the crowd because at some point, I could NOT stand on my own. I can smell people’s breath, sweat, perfume, and cologne. I can feel the heat coming from a collection of all the human flesh radiation. I can see their eyes, either red, cloudy, clear, maniacal, or hidden behind shades. The crowd was going up and down as a whole. Difficult to navigate, so might as well join the army. I don’t even need to move. I just need to lean on the flow and let the people carry me.

JK! I was able to stand still.

The tracklist was tailored to us maniacs. I stood way too in the front that the bass was hitting my fucking face, I couldn’t hear all other mid/high frequencies. I could only identify a song by hearing snippets of the chorus and the chanting from the crowd. But I love it. Isn’t it just the point of a rave?

Mau P

Cloonee followed by Mau P. That was me seeing him 1/3 times this weekend. I am quite familiar with his tracks, but still, I was amazed. The visuals are great, and he just love love LOVES edging us. It’s great to see “Mau P dancing” on the stage. When the Dutch hottie first started DJing, was he shy at all? No way do I think he could match Fisher, but man, he just got nominated as the white boy of the year. I guess a champ white boy wanna sway with a bit of classiness. But look at Fisher. I wish Fisher could be on this stage. Maurice played his rave playlist, full of hitters and getters (and setters? lol). Surrendering to crowd pressure, perhaps? Mau P likes wearing a bandana/beanie recently. It fits him well! Please take good IG pics, not 45 degrees up from your jaw.

What's a maup?

Dom Dolla

30 minutes till Dolly goes on, and I promised myself I would NOT move a single row. I thrived to be in the front row after 2-3 hours of crowd survival efforts, and just 30 more minutes — I got to enjoy a premium view with General Admissions. 30 minutes more. Just smell some second-hand smoke and chill. Just chill.

Dollapalooza.

It is my first time seeing Dom Dolly live. The Australian DJ really got the crowd control power. When the narrating, stage-opening voice popped up with enormous subtitles written in cursive on the big display screen, people were blown away on another level. Throw away your Matcha Latte. Throw it in the trash. THROW IT AHHHH!!! Hug your friends. Oh well, I hug myself. Dom Dolly started with No Room For A Saint, oh gosh, the speakers were banging my fragile eardrums. He seemed quite lonely on the stage. It was just a Dom Dolla and the cameraman. Dolly! Leave Me At The Love Parade got me almost crying. There was a dude in the crowd doing a backflip. Everything was happening. Everything was in motion. The shots inside me long expired, yet I was more drunk than ever. Did EDM thrive in Australia? Dolly!! His closing parts were very heavy-metal techno. Rhyme Dust did smell like dust. F Major is blue. Flat Majors are purple-ish. G Major is orange. E Major is yellow. C Major is white-ish. I used to regard C Major as green. A minor is grey-ish. Everything without a key is monotonous to me and looks like metal parts. The techno slices. Heavy metal, and they smell rusty.

OMW —> Radius

Silly me thought Mau P was really going to perform at 8 pm sharp. I quickly met up with Ella S. and Helene and started sprinting out of Grant Park to grab an Uber. NOTHING WAS WORKING. A 2-mile ride is 30+ dollars, and the Taxi by the road wouldn’t take me. The driver said, Since you are so beautiful, I am not going to charge you 40 dollars. I am ONLY going to charge you 30. My ass.

I united with the seniors again.

Get outta here!

You can walk! Cermack St is not that far. It was right over there. You look so strong! Oh, you can walk.

I literally stripped my purse open to show him that I only had a 20-dollar bill for emergencies. He still insisted on 30 dollars. He said that the roads were blocked, and he had been waiting here for hours for big fish rides. Fine, fair enough. I started running back and forth between the street crossings and the subway station, because the Uber drivers kept canceling! And I somehow always got the wrong pick-up location! I need to run for 10 minutes to get to the pick-up location! Fine. Subway it is. Someone popped open the emergency exit door. I tried to sneak in. My nails almost flipped trying to catch the lingering crevice as the heavy metal door shut right in front of my face. Bro.

I eventually got on the Bus that was, according to Google Maps, delayed for like 30 minutes or so. But there were other raves too. Wristbands don’t lie.

I got off at a station called Archer something. It was deadly dark and silent. Everything was still except for the moving vehicles. Other ravers were going in another direction, but I trusted Google Maps. I started running on the bridge as the Windy City smothered my hair.

I reached, but this is exactly what I was seeing. Everything was shaking. Never drink too much by yourself.

I forgot show times in clubs are different from set times in festivals. Mau P did not go on until 1 am. I was raving for another 2 hours. I got into Radius at 11 pm, and the rest were just legendary :)

Mau P 2.0 @ Radius

Openers were fire. I learned about Clüb De Combat. Talked to a few strangers. One of them was a white blonde boy called Matt who spoke native Chinese. He says he goes to Duke and interns at JPMorgan: “太无聊了！”

Anyways, Mau P was on and playing. I knew it. I knew his club playlist was going to be different from his rave set. I brag a little that I am a loyal follower. Dress Code finally came up, and then it was Your Mind Is Dirty, and some other chill, groovy, classy tracks. Give me that moan Maurice. Bang the hub right inside the club. I loved it. He played from 1 am to 3 am onwards. The club officials notified him to check the time, but he kept playing.

A maup at Radius

I managed to sneak into the front row again. The speakers were on full volume, so full that I could only hear the kicks. But that was enough. To be honest, I haven’t eaten anything since the lonely pregame in the hotel room. My stomach started twisting, and my back and ankles are shaking. For a few moments, I thought I was going to actually faint, but then Mau P would raise a famous track that brought me back to life. The alcohol died away, and my throat was burning. I trusted my adrenaline and my passion. I knew I was going to get sick afterwards. Who cares.

Family who knows. Do you get how good this food is.

White boy of the year truly earned his unofficial award. He ended with a Flo Rida remix. Fun. The crowd started spreading like a fallen jar of sand. Cans, cups, trash. Everywhere. The club, even under max-power bright lights, looked like a limbo. The first thing I did after getting out was look for Mexican food trucks. Oooof that smell! Apparently, street food at 3 am became overpriced, just as anything else. I got some tacos and grilled beef, and inhaled them sitting beside a tree. The street was not dangerous at all. The stream of post-club people spread like creeks on the streets of Chicago. The sun does not need to rise to create a dome.

I am crying on the inside.

Windy City Treated Me Well

I Ubered back to the Hyatt. Started packing because the flight to El Paso is in a few hours.

I was packing with those wristbands on. The truth is, it turns out, being over 21 can give you so much benefits. Wh-ahhh!! Eye opening.

I started remembering all the people I met and talked to before / during /after Lolla and Radius. The opener DJ for a Lolla artist called Boy Next Door (???iykyk). The salesperson who helped hold my purse. The girls with big fans. All the crazy, weird things were happening, and nothing paused for them. I was obviously overwhelmed, but not blown away. I know things are better ahead. Hotel breaky was refreshing. See you in El Paso.

I found this inside the hotel drawer. Is somebody trying to send me a message?

Next Up:

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Published 31 Jul 2025