As a photographer who shoots mainly music related events, festival season is my busiest time for work. I love my job, and each festival is a unique experience with it's own vibe. While there are certainly pros and cons to each fest, I truly love each one for different reasons. That being said, Lollapalooza remains my favorite. Here are 10 reasons why it (in my opinion) is the best.

1. Chicago Has Great Public Transportation

Being  a die hard NY'er, public transportation to me is invaluable. To be able to get around sans car on the cheap is part of my everyday life. Don't get me wrong—I love to drive when there is an opportunity. However, when attending a festival for work and trying to keep costs low, quick, affordable and easy access to a festival is key. Nobody wants to deal with parking a car when 100K others are doing the same thing. Chicago's metro, the CTA, is clean and incredibly easy to navigate. If you fly into O'Hare, the blue line takes you directly from the airport to downtown/Grant Park. It is also as quick as a taxi and costs only $5. Even if public transportation isn't your thing, Ubers in this city are insanely cheap.

2. The Location

There is nothing like being able to walk a couple of blocks from your hotel to the actual festival. Grant Park is located in the heart of downtown Chicago. There are very few festivals where your housing, great food, drug stores, museums—pretty much anything you might want or need—are all within a short walk of the festival. This is also great for being able to catch some early acts and not be committed to the festival grounds all day. Favorite band playing at 2pm, but yu wanted to check out that great restaurant your friends have been talking about before the headliner at 8pm? No problem. You can leave and come back without it being a hassle or taking ages to get back to civilization from the festival grounds.

3.  Lollapalooza Is Incredibly Upfront About Their Sponsors, And That Is Awesome

Lollapalooza names it's stages after whatever brand is sponsoring it. A lot of festivals refuse to do this, and I completely understand—they want to curate a tone, give the festival an identity. However, a lot of these sponsors really, really want that festival presence (that's why they agreed to sponsor it, after all). And guess what? It's not a big deal to do that.  At the end of the day, it ends up just being the name. I am not suddenly changing from Verizon to Sprint because I went to see Tove Lo play on that stage. Bud Light is not suddenly my new favorite beer. I actually didn't really think much about it other than "why do most festivals make it such a big deal to have a sponsored name stage?" Did it take away anything from the performance or good time at the festival? Absolutely fucking not.

4. Chicago Has Amazing Food

Another huge plus about being in a major city is great food. Chicago has incredible restaurants, and with the festival being so conveniently located, there is ample time to check them out. There is only so much rolling the dice with concession stands before you want to have a real meal. Some places that I recommend near Grant Park are The Gage, The Purple Pig and Cherry Circle at The Chicago Athletic Club. 

5. Grant Park

Doing a festival in a major city isn't easy. Between permitting, sound and space restrictions it's hard to get an event of this capacity in the hub of a city. Grant Park is a huge, beautiful  and centrally located park. It is laid out in a grid with main roads running through it, which is ideal for walking around. The park has trees, manicured shubbery and floral life. The main staple is a huge beautiful fountain in the center of the grounds. As if that weren't enough, their are views of Lake Michigan to the east and amazing skyscrapers lining the rest of the park. It is arguably some of the best architecture in the city. To watch the buildings light up during twilight is breathtaking.

6. Lollapalooza Is One Highly-Organized, Well-Run Festival

The staff/organization of a festival can really make it or break it for an attendee. Lollapalooza is, hands down, the most organized festival I have ever been to. It is well laid out, efficient and the staff is informed. The two times I have been at this festival, it needed to be evacuated due to extreme weather conditions. Each time this was handled in a professional and swift manner, with the festival back up and running in a couple of hours. Flawless execution each time. They know what they are doing, and it makes for a great experience for those attending.

7. The Crowd

When I shoot festivals, I spend a lot of time documenting the crowd and walking the festival grounds. One thing I really like about Lollapalooza is the crows. The audience spans from children to teens to 20 somethings to cool dads to old rockers, and any other type of person you can imagine. Maybe it's due to being in the Midwest, but I find most of the crowd to be very polite compared to other experiences. The overall vibe of the festival lacks pretension; people seem to be there genuinely because they love the music, not to be part of a scene.

8. The Music

Friday night Paul McCartney closed out the main stage of the festival. The sun was setting and dragonflies flew low in the sky as the light slowly began to fade.. As I stood with my friends watching his performance, I looked around at the massive crowd. There were people of all ages fixated on the stage. Everybody sang along to "Hey Jude;" it was powerful and moving (not gonna lie, I cried). I thought of how my grandfather had taken my mother to see the Beatles and how my parents had taken me to see Paul McCartney before. The fact that these songs have transcended time and were experienced by so many generations of my family (and yours as well, I imagine) is amazing. It was the best closing festival set I have seen to date. Full disclosure: Kaskade had been playing a closing set a stage that was perhaps a little TOO close as there was some sound clash. This problem was resolved fairly quickly and Paul even made a joke about it. Awesome.

9. The History 

Lollapalooza originated in 1991 by Perry Farrell as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiciton.  A large portion of the current festival attendees weren't even alive at that point. Now the festival has certainly changed format and shape since conception, but after that many years of being around it's no surprise that the current festival is so well-run.

10. The After-Festival Shows

With a 10pm curfew, the festival may end earlier than others, but that is another perk of being in the middle of a major city—you can find any type of after-party or show that you heart desires within a short distance.