Lollapalooza ends early due to severe weather in area

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The final day of Lollapalooza ended early Sunday night due to severe weather moving through the Chicago area.

The music festival in Grant Park was earlier interrupted by a quickly moving severe thunderstorm Sunday afternoon that had thousands of festival-goers scrambling out of Grant Park.

Organizers of the festival stopped the music shortly after 2:30 p.m. Then tens of thousands of fans were told to evacuate Grant Park and go to one of three underground parking garages designated as emergency evacuation shelters.

"It was totally orderly," said festival-goer George Mavrakis. "I think everyone was trying to help each other. No one was pushing or anything.

Promoters made the decision to evacuate about an hour before it began to rain. Weather also caused the festival's schedule to be interrupted in August 2012.

"We'll push messaging out via our socials, we'll also have on all of the screen stages, messaging lite up, as well as announcements over the PAs throughout the park so that everyone is in the know," said Brooke Leal, Fresh Clean Media.

Some ticketholders thought the evacuation was unnecessary.

"It drizzled a little bit," said Jamie Hill. "If anything, they should have put everybody in little areas under little tents, but they should not have kicked everybody out."

Before the storms put the stage acts scheduled to perform on Lollapalooza's third and final day on hold, crowds were seeking some relief from the hot and steamy weather.

"It's hot out here. We want to be safe and keep hydrated, have chairs and be in the shade. It's all good," said Andrea Baker.

"The heat definitely affected me. I'm sunburned and I'm dead, so the heat has been pretty bad," Anthony Emerg said.

When the rain stopped, people started to head back to the park and waited for the music festival to officially re-open. Excited music fans streamed through the entrance, ready to pick up where they left off.

"I just love how you can go and have the best time of your life," said Anthony Sciarini.