Lollapalooza Tue Feb 14 2012

Lollapalooza Lineup Leaked? Not Likely.

By Andrew Huff

Over the past few days, the supposed 2012 Lollapalooza lineup has been slowly leaked on an anonymous Twitter account, @LollaLeaks. If true, this year's festival would be fairly impressive and as schizophrenic as always.

Acts listed by the twitterer included AWOLNATION, Gaslight Anthem, Guided by Voices, Korn, Missy Elliott, At The Drive-In, Garbage, Sleigh Bells, Antlers, Passion Pit, OFWGKTA and Wale. @LollaLeaks also named Metallica, Beyoncé, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Killers, Beck and Sonic Youth as the headliners, with the festival serving as Sonic Youth's final show.

None of this has been confirmed, obviously, but the anonymous account certainly stuck in Perry Ferrell's craw. He retweeted @LollaLeaks repeatedly, adding insults and denials along the way.

A separate Twitter account, "Lolita Palooza," added more acts to the list, but was disavowed by @LollaLeaks and couldn't catch Ferrell's attention. Again, take all of this with a grain of salt, but here's the second account's alleged leaks: Bombay Bicycle Club, Sleighbells, Korn, Crosses, St. Vincent, Surfer Blood, Kimbra, Real Estate, The Shins, M83, Joan Jett & The Blackhears and Gotye. Perry's Tent will feature Korn vs. Skrillex, Bassnectar, Calvin Harris, Flux Pavilion, Wax, Mord Fustang, Knife Party and M.I.A. Lolita Palooza also claims Jane's Addiction will not play Lollapalooza but will perform at an aftershow with one of the headliners.

I'm not presenting any of this as an endorsement, simply recording it for posterity. It's relatively early for the lineup to be solidifying, and if only a couple of these acts pan out, it will likely mean that the would-be leakers got lucky. But if the alleged leaks turn out to be more right than wrong, Lollapalooza has some seriously loose lips sinking their ship.

Lollapalooza 2012 will take place in Grant Park Aug. 3-5. The first official lineup announcement isn't expected until later this spring.

UPDATE 2/20/12: The author of @LollaLeaks posted a mea culpa on Tumblr, explaining that "I've been fucking with you this whole time."

I started @LollaLeaks as a bit of an experiment. Could one "anonymous" person throw a random lineup on the internet and get people to believe it? I figured I'd fool a few people, maybe make a local blog or something... Never did I imagine I would end up feuding with Perry Farrell (Dave Navarro chimed in at one point, too) and have my fake "leaks" reported on by several very reputable blogs and news outlets. (Several reporters even attempted to contact me for more info through Twitter) After one week of posting, I had 2,000 followers who retweeted my every post, came to me with questions, and lashed out at me when I posted about acts they didn't like. It was the single most bizarre moment of my tweeting life.

Part of me does feel bad. I'm sure I got some of your hopes about a lineup that I, for one, would love to see happen. But, at the same time, it's hard for me to sympathize with people who take information from an anonymous stranger seriously. Anyone can start a blog/Twitter account and post lies. I'm proof of that. The fact that so many of you believed me and shared that information is a little startling, to be honest with you. Why not wait for credible sources that have evidence to back up their claims? While I totally understand the excitement leading up to an awesome fest like Lolla, you guys (especially journalists) should know better.

So there you go. Hopefully my own skepticism was evident, but if you were holding out any hope for Korn at Lolla this year, this probably put extinguished any flicker that flame had going for it.