The final day of Lollapalooza 2022 had a lot to live up to, and it certainly delivered on Sunday in Chicago. With a healthy mix of exciting new artists and established stars, the day’s lineup felt like a preview of festivals to come.

Milwaukee was represented early on in the day, with Buffalo Nichols taking his blend of gristly blues and Americana to the BMI stage in the afternoon. Operating as a duo with his drummer, he was able to showcase his guitar slinging ability as well, with some distorted solos that garnered the attention of a healthy crowd. Nichols has been on a few festival lineups at this point, and certainly knows what it takes to make new fans at the beginning of the day.

A bit of novelty made its way to the Bud Light Seltzer main stage Sunday afternoon as well, as DJO, featuring Joe Keery from Stranger Things, played a set to a big crowd. While it would be assumed that many of the fans in attendance knew Keery for his acting rather than his musical chops, they were swaying along with tracks from lone album “Twenty Twenty” and its subsequent singles. The band kept it mellow, while the crowd screamed along at every chance to elicit a reaction, even if it wasn’t necessarily about the notes coming out of the speakers.

Over on the Discord stage, KennyHoopla made his Lollapalooza debut, with an energetic set despite losing his voice the night before. He powered through, chugging water and flying around the stage area and into the crowd at one point. He’s come a long way from his Summerfest debut, now playing with a full band backing him and a wireless mic, rather than getting tangled up in the monitors like he did in Milwaukee. The crowd bounced along with him for tracks from his “Survivor’s Guilt” project, and moshed along to “Hollywood Sucks,” much to KennyHoopla’s humble delight.

Later on in the afternoon, Beach Bunny took to the Coinbase stage, and showed that they could very well be moving higher up the bill in the near future with what they believed might be the biggest crowd they had ever played to. The band delighted with what is proving to be their breakout in “Emotional Creature.” To make things even more special for the Chicago natives, lead singer Lili Trifilio’s brother Steve stepped in to play guitar on a few songs, and their dad was in attendance to film it all on a phone.

Of course, Lollapalooza is Perry Farrell’s festival, and so it was only right that one of his bands make an appearance at Grant Park. Porno For Pyros took the T-Mobile main stage, and it felt like an earlier iteration of the festival that was more alternative rock driven was still alive. Farrell moved very loosely on stage, and was backed up by a pair of scantily clad singers, who were actually dressed fairly modest by Lollapalooza standards.

Closing Lollapalooza’s main stage is a badge of honor, and Green Day wore it with pride. The band’s two-hour closing set on Sunday was an punctuation on a festival that had already seen its fair share of great moments. Green Day also showed that they had evolved into consistent showmen, pulling out all the stops to end the evening. In addition to a set list that played like a greatest hits compilation, there was also plenty of fire, pyrotechnics, and crowd participation. Decked out in a shirt from the Metro, where the band played an aftershow on Friday night, Billie Joe Armstrong served as conductor for not only the extended band, but the massive crowd that felt larger than life when shown on the screens on either side of the stage.

Nothing was spared from Green Day, as they brought out fans to sing and play guitar on stage, threw in covers of KISS and Operation Ivy, and worked the crowd with every opportunity. There was even a rendition of The Isley Brothers’ “Shout” because, well, why not. It all worked for the crowd, though, putting a celebratory bow at the end of four days of music. Green Day proved why they are still one of the biggest bands in the world, and sent the Chicago crowd home in style.

Lollapalooza 2022 is in the books, and it won’t be soon forgotten. The festival provided just about anything that you could have asked for musically, and had its fair share of big moments along the way. For even more Lollapalooza, you can head over to our Patreon page to get early access to artist interviews and much more exclusive content.

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