Lollapalooza is an American traveling music festival featuring alternative rock, rap, and punk rock bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. Organized in 1991 by Perry Farrell, singer for the band Jane's Addiction, Lollapalooza ran annually through 1997, and was revived in 2003. The festival encapsulated youth culture for the 1990s much as Woodstock did for the 1960s.The Lollapalooza Generation is sometimes used as a synonym for Generation X. Farrell conceived of the Lollapalooza festival in 1990 as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction. The name Lollapalooza means "something outstanding or unusual"; Farrell heard the word in a Three Stooges short film and liked the sound.

The 1991 lineup was also daringly eclectic, drawing in headliners from rap like Ice-T as well as electronic music like Nine Inch Nails. Crossing popular music's rigidly-drawn genre lines gave the festival an air of independence from corporate rock. Another key concept behind Lollapalooza was the inclusion of non-musical features. Performers like the Jim Rose Circus, an alternative freak show, or the Shaolin Monks stretched the boundaries of traditional rock culture. There was a tent for display of art pieces, virtual reality games, and information tables for political and environmental non-profit groups. Lollapalooza's charter was not just a super-star rock jam -- it was a cultural festival, albeit for the newly-formed 1990s counterculture.

After 1991, the festival included a second stage (and, in 1996, a third stage) for up-and-coming bands or local acts. It began a churning effect for alternative music -- as underground bands broke through to the mainstream, they drew listeners to Lollapalooza, who would then see the next generation of underground bands on the second stage. Many of the bands that played second stage at Lollapalooza later had more widespread commercial success.

The final years of the first run of Lollapalooza saw the festival lose its focus. Farrell, who had been the soul of the festival, quit the organization to concentrate on his new festival project, ENIT. Ideas and musical genres that had been edgy and risqué at the beginning of the 1990s were now mainstream or passé. Efforts were made to keep the festival relevant, such as including more eclectic acts such as country superstar Waylon Jennings, and emphasizing more heavily electronica groups like The Prodigy. By 1997, however, the Lollapalooza concept had run out of steam, and in 1998 failed efforts to find a headliner willing to do the show rang the deathknell for Lollapalooza.

In 2003, however, Farrell reconvened Jane's Addiction and scheduled a new tour. The festival schedule included venues in 30 cities through July and August. The 2003 tour achieved only marginal success with many fans staying away because of high ticket prices and heavy corporate sponsorship. Another tour scheduled for 2004 was canceled in June due to weak ticket sales across the country. Lollapalooza came back strong in 2005 after Farrell partnered with the owners and operators of Austin City Limits Music Festival. The music festival has beaten the elements and the odds and is now a summer fixture in Chicago. The 2010 took over the downtown park from August 6 to 8 and the festival will play through at least 2018 after the recent signing of a deal that guaranteed the city $13 million. Get Lollapalooza tickets now to see what this summer's festival has in store.