Watch Footage From Skrillex’s Unprecedented Takeover of Lollapalooza’s Iconic Perry’s Stage
The sun rose and set to Skrillex's command over the weekend at Lollapalooza, where the dubstep icon transformed one of the festival's most beloved stages into his own adult playground.
Sporting a new name atop its towering truss, the iconic Perry's Stage transformed into "Sonny's Stage" and trembled under the weight of Skrillex's sonic bookends as he opened Saturday with a noon set under the Chicago sun before closing the night with a thunderous encore at 8:15. A curated lineup of his friends and collaborators, including Kenny Beats and Four Tet, built the energy to a fever pitch in-between.
When darkness fell, Skrillex returned to detonate that pent-up frenzy with a genre-bending blitz of bangers, including spins of "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites," Bangarang" and his remix of Avicii's timeless "Levels." The energy boiled over when he closed with "RATATA," his fan-favorite collaboration with Missy Elliott from last year's Quest for Fire album.
Many fans at "Sonny's Stage" stayed put the entire day. Skrillex paused at one point to pay homage to the stage's namesake, Perry Farrell, and acknowledge his wish for it to remain dedicated to the famed Lollapalooza co-founder.
The rare takeover was a big moment for the electronic dance music community considering Farrell's thorny relationship with the genre. "I hate EDM," he told the Chicago Tribune back in 2019. "I want to vomit it out of my nostrils. I can't stand what it did to what I love, which is house music."
Reflecting on those comments in a late-2022 interview with EDM.com, he explained that they were more so a critique on the bastardization of the art form of DJing that arose from corporate interests.
"It just kind of came out of my mouth," he said. "I shouldn't have probably said it, but once I said it, I mean, I stand by it because I'm only going to try to speak from a place of truth."
Watch footage from Skrillex's 2024 Lollapalooza takeover below.
Perry’s stage is Sonny’s stage at @lollapalooza today as @Skrillex does a whole stage takeover, which started with his own surprise set to start the day!
— EDM.com (@TheEDMNetwork) August 3, 2024
🎥: @dancingastro pic.twitter.com/xF2TUXvCN4
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