In the days leading up to Lollapalooza, city officials repeatedly reassured Chicagoans that the massive music festival wouldn't be a super-spreading event—even as the Delta variant caused COVID-19 cases to trend upward in Chicago and the rest of the country, and as local doctors sounded alarms about the fest's COVID safety measures. Now, 14 days after the festival's kick-off, the Chicago Department of Public Health has released data showing that 203 people who attended Lollapalooza have tested positive for COVID-19 over the past two weeks, a number that city officials say falls short of super-spreading levels.
“There’s no evidence at this point of a super-spreader event, and there’s no evidence of substantial impact to Chicago’s COVID epidemiology,” CDPH commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said at a Thursday morning press conference, adding that the health department expected around 200 cases.
Of those 203 COVID-19 cases, 176 were in vaccinated individuals (so-called “breakthrough” cases), and 76 were unvaccinated. Fifty-eight individuals were from Chicago, 138 were non-Chicago Illinois residents and seven came from out of state. The data comes from Chicago's regular COVID-19 contact tracing system, and any individual who tested positive for COVID-19 during or after attending Lollapalooza was included in the analysis. As of August 11, no hospitalizations or deaths have been reported.
It's likely that this data isn't comprehensive, especially for out-of-state attendees (though CDPH has asked other health departments to notify them if they report positive cases associated with Lollapalooza) and for asymptomatic cases, as those individuals may not have sought testing; according to CDPH analysis, 82 percent of people who tested positive displayed symptoms. Still, Arwady said that the data is encouraging enough for the city to proceed with large outdoor events moving forward.
The coming weeks are packed with summer music festivals, including Ruido Fest, the Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash, Pitchfork Music Festival and Riot Fest. Similar to Lollapalooza's policy, all of these events are requiring attendees to present a vaccination card or a negative COVID-19 test (the window for taking the test varies from 24 to 72 hours before entry) to gain entrance to the event. It's unclear if organizers will be matching the name on vaccine and test documents to a government-issued photo ID, as many local music venues are doing.
“We're continuing with large events at this point,” Arwady said. “Lollapalooza is not the only event that we have looked at, and we've consistently seen with outdoor events not signs of significant spread.”