Even though there is plenty of shake-your-head press about Malia Obama twerking or the number of assaults and drug/alcohol related emergencies that happened over the weekend in Grant Park I experienced these festival goers in a completely random and surprisingly hope filled way. Let me explain. Even though I enjoy a lot of the musicians that performed over the weekend I am not in a phase of life that screams “yeah, let’s go!” I have five kids, the oldest is 11. What I am trying to say is that I completely blanked on the fact that this festival was happening. All I cared about was taking my kids to the Field Museum, the Navy Pier, and Millennium Park. There was no mistaking that the festival was happening when I looked out the second story window of the museum and saw the massive stages and heard the bass from the artist performing.
As we walked along the shore of Lake Michigan towards the Navy Pier we avoided most of the concert goers. Our goal was to take pictures at Millennium Park and hopefully get some donuts from the Beaver donuts food truck (best in Chicago!) It was only a matter of time that my family and Lollapalooza were going to collide. We did.
Here is the awesome thing that I will never forget. Were the festival goers expressing themselves freely? Yes. Was there plenty of drinking in public. Yup. However, as soon as they saw my kids almost all of them made room, toned down the language, said things like “Oh, excuse me sir.”
They didn’t have to be polite. They didn’t have to censor themselves for the sake of my kids. They didn’t have to, but they did. So on behalf of a dad who was simply looking for some donuts for his kids, thank you Lollapalooza attendees. You didn’t have to, but you did and it meant a lot to me.
Rev. Shawn J. Smith 