Lollapalooza Cancels Opening Date In Ionia, Michigan

06/17/2003 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
LAUNCH Radio Networks

(6/17/03, 4 p.m. ET) -- Lollapalooza has canceled its opening date, which was previously set for July 3 in Ionia, Michigan (a suburb of Grand Rapids), due to what tour organizers are calling staging and production issues with the city's fairgrounds.

The production team discovered the Ionia Fairgrounds layout wasn't up to snuff, saying, "Jane's Addiction recently went into pre-production rehearsal for Lollapalooza, and in the past week it became apparent that the production and set for Jane's Addiction was too large for the stage at the venue in Grand Rapids. It would have been cost-prohibitive to make it work at that particular venue."

Lollapalooza now kicks off July 5 in Noblesville, Indiana at the Verizon Wireless Music Center. Fans in the Grand Rapids area do have the option of attending the July 18 show at the DTE Music Center in the Detroit area. All tickets will be refunded at the point of purchase. Some have speculated that the cancellation was due to ticket sales, but a publicist declined to comment.

The bands performing the festival are undaunted, and Incubus singer Brandon Boyd is going in with the idea that Lollapalooza is all about the music. "All the bands involved we really enjoy," Boyd said. "We're looking forward to being really inspired this summer, and hopefully making some good music along the way."

No other Lollapalooza dates have been cancelled at this point in time. In addition to Incubus and Jane's Addiction, the revamped festival includes appearances by Audioslave, the Donnas, Queens Of The Stone Age, Cold, and Jurassic 5, among others.

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