I have a confession; I’ve lived in Chicago for four years and I’ve never been to Lollapalooza. It’s the twenty fifth anniversary of the music festival this year and the fourth year I skipped out. I’ve never been a huge fan of outdoor festivals, I’ve been to North Coast and a few others, because I feel like the focus is more on the drugs and drinking rather than on the music. If I’m going to see a band I love, I want to focus only on the band.

But this year, a couple of my friends were going and I considered going. That’s a lie– I more than considered going. I scoured StubHub looking for last Minute Tickets but was too cheap to dish out $200 for last minute tickets. But everyone’s snaps looked so fun and I caught serious FOMO.  I didn’t want to have an average weekend.

So rather than buying sold out Lolla tickets, I bought sold out aftershow tickets, which were only $70 (originally $36).

It was pricey, but so worth it.

The Aragon is always beautiful, never failing to amaze. I could stare up at the ceiling forever. If I was the sort of lady to do psychedelic drugs, I would do them in the Aragon with great music, staring up at the ceiling. But- a quick note on the Aragon, it gets hot. Many concert halls do, but for some reason I always find myself dripping an extra gallon under the starry-night ceiling of this particular venue. Most people accommodate the extra degrees with less clothing. I would recommend others do the same.

The opener, Towkio, fell short of impressive. The beats were hard to dance to, feeling choppily pieced together. His ‘singing’ style was reminiscent of Chance the Rapper (someone actually yelled out “You’re not Chance!”), but it seems like every Chicago rapper is obsessed with Chance nowadays. We were counting the minutes until the performance was over. Aside from “GWM (Gang With Me)”, no songs were memorable or particularly good.

But then Major Lazer came out, and the crowd went wild. I went wild. Every song was amazing. I didn’t count myself a particular fan of the band until I realized that I knew and loved every song they played. We were jumping and shaking (and, I’m sad to admit, twerking) to every single song. The songs blurred together in a perfect harmony of electronic party and sexy beats. Sweat and beer poured down my legs but I didn’t care because it was Major Lazer and I could dance all night.

We left out of breath, temporarily death, and smiling.

It wasn’t Lolla, but I’ve never been to Lolla, and the night couldn’t have been more perfect. The takeaway? I need to go to more EDM concerts (and next time I should wear no pants and furry boots, like the other women in the crowd).

I wish I had better photos, but I was dancing too much to keep my phone up.