Be sure to check the list of what is allowed into the festival

This should be obvious, but can be completely ignored sometimes.

This happened to me on one of the days of Lollapalooza 2016 when I brought all of my extra sunscreen for the day in spray bottles. That is obviously a good idea on paper, but except I ran into one problem. I was unaware that the policies of the festival, at least at time stated that your sunscreen could not come in a spray bottle.

So I was forced to throw out my sunscreen and had to rely on friends who had brought sunscreen that was not in a spray bottle to avoid getting fried on a hot July day in Grant Park. This is especially crucial for this upcoming festival, as the festival has modified their bag policy where some types of backpacks that you could carry into the festival in previous years will no longer be allowed into the festival starting this year.

The last thing you want is to be told by security at the checkpoint that you have to get rid of something because it is not allowed past the security checkpoint lines.

Pack a lot of water and sunscreen

This one should really be self-explanatory. Since Lollapalooza in America always happens on the last weekend of July or the first weekend of August, it will be a very hot weekend. Temperatures have reached the 90's at the festival before, and since you will be outside in the drenching heat for many hours, you have to play it safe and bring all of the sunscreen and water you can bring in.

Bringing a lot of your own water is very important if you plan on going to the festival on Sunday. I learned that the hard way in my first year of attendance because on the Sunday of that year not only did the food stands start to run out of bottled water, but so did the free water refill stations. Basically, there is no guarantee that there will be enough extra water for the hundreds of thousands of people in attendance when the last day of the festival hits.

Yes sure, it may be very tempting to just say you will buy water at the food stands so you can get into Grant Park faster by getting to skip the long bag entry line in favor of the express line reserved for patrons without bags. But only do that if you have a trusted friend going to the festival that can promise you that you can use his/her sunscreen and water if you are desperate to get in fast through the express line.

Save and bring extra money for food

You will inevitably get hungry while attending Lollapalooza. A combination of mosh pits, walking from stage to stage, and dancing around the stages will burn a lot of calories. Unless you are camping out in the front of a stage all day long for a specific performer, it is not wise to never get any food for yourself all day long.

Every year, Lollapalooza gets numerous Chicago food businesses to pitch up a tent in the middle of the park for all of the festival goers to grab a good bite to eat. From ribs to even some vegan options, you will find somewhere with a good festival filling to ease your inevitable hunger. So do not go to this festival without bringing extra cash and/or a credit card on you. Being at this festival all day means you have to eat there too.

Do not wear shorts without a secure pocket

People do lose important things such as phones and wallets at Lollapalooza. While there may not be a way to entirely prevent yourself from losing your wallet and/or your phone, I do have a solution that has led me to never have lost my wallet or my phone in the middle of the packed crowd.

That is, I wear cargo shorts which have a secured pocket either through buttons or zippers. Yes, athletic shorts may be convenient because you will get hot and sweat to death. But if they have no pockets, or very small unsecured pockets, just do not wear them because that will only increase the likelihood that you will run into the problem of getting your wallet and/or your phone lost or stolen.

Create your phone background to be one with emergency contact numbers

If you want to be really safe and protective of your phone while at Lolla, here is a trick. For the days you are in attendance at the festival, set your lock screen on your phone as a screenshot of something you have written in your notes on your phone to be a list of phone numbers of friends you know will be in attendance at the festival.

Say something like "if this phone has been lost, please contact one of these numbers and say that you have the phone of your friend (list your name)". While this is not guaranteed to work if you do lose your phone, changing your cool lock screen background might come in handy if you just follow this simple strategy. An example of this is the picture above which I had used for my phone background during the two days I had went to the festival last year.

Determine who you want to see in advance

As for me, I typically spend the afternoon until about 7:00 hanging around Perry's Stage because that is where so many people I know from high school meet up at the festival before the big acts perform later in the night.

Once it gets to be about an hour before one of the headliners I want to see, I make my way over to the bigger stages and try to get as good of a spot as I can get. But what always happens to me is that I get separated from the rest of the crowd I go with later in the evening because people all split up to go see different headliners.

If there is a specific group of friends that you intend to see one of the headliners in the night with, this is such an important step. If you do not hold hands, lock arms, or do not do something that maintains physical contact when walking to one of the headliners, you will get lost from your friends and will not be able to see or contact them until the night is over because cell phone service for calls and texts is absolutely horrible at Lollapalooza because there are thousands of people all in one area who jam any hope of getting reasonable cell service due to the overcrowding.

If you are going to the festival to meet up with a large group of people like I do, just be sure you know in advance where everybody will be meeting up so you aren't scrambling to find people with no hope of contacting them in Grant Park. But if there is a performer you absolutely love and is doing one of the headliners in the evening, and you want to spend all day waiting in the front row of that stage to ensure you see your favorite performer up close, then do that regardless of what the other people you are going with are doing.

Know how you are getting to and from the festival in advance

This is simple enough for most people attending Lollapalooza.

Since the festival usually consists of high schoolers and college students who live in the Chicago area, the Metra trains will become overcrowded at certain times. If you are staying in one of the hotels near Grant Park with a group of friends, be sure you know how far away Grant Park is from your hotel. Also, determine how you are getting to and from your hotel on your check-in and check-out days.

While I have never rented a hotel room with my friends for Lolla, and will not do that again this year, I do suggest to plan your check-in and check-out times carefully. This suggestion is for the sake of not getting to the first day of the festival too late, or accidentally getting charged for a night you did not stay at your hotel.

As you may expect, all of the hotels around Grant Park are stacked with Lollapalooza attendees during the weekend, so I it would be beneficial if you planned things out in detail in advance for your hotel reservations. If you are someone like me and just takes the Metra trains to and from the festival every day, be sure to check when the last train in your line leaves that night before going to an after show or anywhere else in the city.

You do not want to be stranded in Chicago for the night without a place to stay simply because you didn't know when the last train on your line leaves. Also, while it is pretty simple to get from Chicago's Union Station to Grant Park (is only about 1.3 miles away from each other), save money for a taxi, Uber, Lyft, or something else if you do not feel like doing extra walking.

If you have to get to Union Station or your hotel once the festival is done for the night, and you are not familiar with directions and the streets of Chicago, I highly suggest that you save up enough battery on your phone to get you directions to Union Station or your hotel. And be sure to follow my next point as well.

Bring as many portable phone chargers as you can find

This one is important. Yes, there may be charging stations where you can charge up your phone in Grant Park over the weekend, but those will not only become crowded very quickly, they will also be an inconvience to you as you will miss parts of the festival being away while charging your phone. You will lose a lot of phone battery with all of the pictures and videos you will want to take throughout the day. Or if your phone is like mine, the battery will drain quickly from moving around very frequently. You don't want to lose your ability to take memorable pictures and videos, or even the ability to lose directions back to wherever you need to go after the festival because you didn't think of bringing your own phone chargers.

Don't be that person who has to get taken to the hospital for drinking too much

I have seen this happen every year I have been going to Lollapalooza.

You will inevitably run into somebody, usually one who is not yet 21 years of age, vomit uncontrollably on a stretcher with the medical staff of the festival.

I will tell you something, even if you are under 21, it is easier to get alcohol than you may think it is at Lollapalooza. This is especially true if you are planning to go to Lollapalooza with a large group of people. People do put vodka in their water bottles and are able to sneak it through security, or you may know somebody who is 21 or older and will buy beer for you at the festival. So drinking alcohol at Lollapalooza is a common norm regardless of age.

If you choose to drink while at the festival, I advise you to be careful with it. You never want to drink too much to the point where you don't know what is going on or have to be rushed to the emergency room. Not only could you cause embarrassment for yourself or start a direct threat to your own health, but drinking too much might cause you to ruin your experience at the festival.

I remember on one of the days I went to Lollapalooza last year, I went to go get myself some food in between performances, and somebody behind me screamed at me to move out of the away. Thankfully I did, because it was a member of the medical staff taking a girl who had too many drinks and was vomiting uncontrollably on a stretcher behind me.

If I hadn't moved over, this girl would've vomited on me. So just don't be that person who drinks ungodly amounts of alcohol for your safety and for the enjoyment of others around you.

On another note, if you are underage and seem completely wasted, that is when the cops might intervene with you and punish you for underage drinking. So whether or not you are 21 years old, please be careful if you choose to drink.

Get to Grant Park when the gates open if you want to beat the lines

I used this strategy to my advantage last year. Two years ago, I took the late train to the city, and it cost me because I had to spend at least 30 minutes in the security line trying to get into the festival. Sure, it may suck being alone or not with many people for a couple of hours. But getting through the gates as early as you can if you have a bag really pays off because you can just enjoy yourself inside of the festival and not have to worry about getting through security when it is busy.

Wear clothes you can get sweaty in, but make it unique if you can

The most common outfits you will see at Lollapalooza are sports jerseys (especially basketball), and even a good number of Hawaiian shirts. You definitely should wear something cool but not overly valuable such as a sports jersey or Hawaiian shirt that you can get hot and sweaty in. But if you have something unique that is not overly sentimental or anything, such as a cool outfit that you can use to represent school spirit or your pride for a band or artist that is performing on that day, wear it! It may make you stand out from the crowd, but you will be seen as being even more unique because you are showing off something cool about yourself in a music festival that attracts so many people from around the world.

Take lots of pictures with your friends

You will want to remember your Lollapalooza experience. So be sure to take pictures of not only the event, but also with the people you come to the festival with. Having lots of pictures of you and your friends at the festival will always hold great memories of such an amazing day you will never want to forget about.

Have fun

This is probably the most important part about going to Lollapalooza. People go to this festival for reasons beyond seeing talented musicians. People will spend so much money going to this event because it is very fun. My advice is simple. Just enjoy the moments of the show as well as the people you are with.

Even if adverse things happen to you during the festival, such as losing your phone, or there is a sudden weather evacuation that puts the festival on hold (this has happened twice in the last three years), just enjoy the moment and the beauty of Lollapalooza. If Lollapalooza wasn't fun, there wouldn't be over a hundred thousand people spending hundreds of dollars attending this world renown music festival. So no matter what happens, just do your best to try and enjoy the moment and have fun.