The Chicago Sun-Times has reported that The Chicago Park District and the promoters of Lollapalooza are set to sign a five-year, $5 million deal. The contract would allow the three-day music festival to return each summer to Chicago’s Grant Park through 2011. Last year’s festival drew over 60,000 people and there are plans to accommodate up to 15,000 more attendees next year as the date has been set for August 3–5, 2007.

Congratulations to Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell and the city of Chicago. The event’s been a success as a one-city, multi-band extravaganza for two years now with solid potential for at least five more years.

Lollapalooza’s promising future is quite a turnaround after its cancellation in 2004. That year, the multi-city tour boasted a line-up of highly respected veteran artists including Morrissey, Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey, The Flaming Lips, Wilco, The Pixies and Modest Mouse. It sounded pretty good on paper, but poor ticket sales sunk it before the traveling circus even began. At the time, it appeared Lollapalooza had lost touch with the younger, concert-going audience and spread itself too thin with the pressure of a national tour. Turning it into a destination event with a massive lineup of veterans and cutting-edge up-and-comers has reversed its fortune.

I commend the braintrust for figuring out a way to make Lollapalooza work, but I still can’t help but thinking that massive outdoor festivals like these are the worst way to see bands. August in Chicago is almost always super-hot and most of the artists playing sound better in a more intimate setting. The majority of indie and underground bands don’t play stadium-sized rock and belong in a smaller theater or club. South By Southwest and CMJ are great events because you can see countless bands perform in the proper setting. Unfortunately those events are pricey and somewhat exclusive to music industry insiders, but if you can ever make it (especially to SXSW), that’s the ideal way to consume tons of music at once.

I went to Lollapalooza in 1994 when the traveling tour featured The Breeders, A Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys and Smashing Pumpkins on the main stage. I was also introduced to Luscious Jackson on the side stage. I had a great time, but despite my youth, the day in the sun was sweltering and exhausting. After the Beastie Boys tore up the stage, Smashing Pumpkins closed out the show. The worn-out crowd thinned a little and seemingly showed less enthusiasm for the Pumpkins than the Beasties. Billy Corgan called us on it and launched into a tirade about how traveling summer concert tours don’t work because the headliner gets screwed with a less-than-energetic crowd. He also launched into a long soliloquy about the man, the government, institutions, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed the Pumpkins performance, and Billy’s rant has always stuck with me. Summer concerts aren’t the best way to see a band. Good luck Lollapalooza.