CHICAGO – Lollapalooza 2021, staged July 29 to Aug. 1, 2021 as the Delta variant of the virus was causing a spike in new cases in the U.S., was criticized as a potential super-spreader event.
But although findings issued Aug. 12 by the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) reported a total of 203 out of 385,000 attendees tested positive after the event, there were no hospitalizations and deaths.
The Aug. 12 report notes that, of the 203 who tested positive, 127 had been vaccinated and 76 were unvaccinated. (Non-vaccinated attendees had been required to present a recent negative Covid-19 test to enter the festival grounds.) Geographically, 58 of the 203 were Chicago residents, 138 were from Illinois beyond Chicago’s city limits and seven were from out-of-state (MN, GA, VA, NY).
The CDPH’s follow-up analysis of the 58 Chicago residents who tested positive included 13 who admitted that they entered the festival grounds on or after the day that their symptoms began. Ten others cited bars and travel, and not the festival itself, as potential points of infection.
While even a single case of Covid transmission can end up having serious consequences if the person infected comes into contact with vulnerable people, the fact that 90 percent of Lollapalooza attendees were vaccinated and 10 percent were required to present recent (within 72 hours) negative Covid tests prior to entry helped keep the reported infections in the two weeks following the event to just 0.0005 percent of total attendees (or five in 10,000).
So did Lollapalooza 2021 end up being a super spreader event? Not really. There was “nothing unexpected here,” said Chicago Department of Public Health commissioner Allison Arwady in a press conference on Aug. 10. “We would have seen a surge if we were going to see a surge at this point.”
To download the CDPH report, go to https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/sites/covid/images/home/CDPH_8.12.21_press-conference-final.pdf
