For the first time in Lollapalooza history, musicians and fans could order up cold brews and hot/iced espresso drinks from the fine folks at Stumptown Coffee. The company set up shop behind the South Mainstage at this year’s festival in Chicago. They slang’d shots for music’s hottest acts: The Shins! Washed Out! Little Dragon! Die Antwoord! Justice! OMG STFU SRSLY…
We asked Stumptown trainer Mike Horgan a few questions about the operation:
We’ve been looking at the line-up and it’s huge. What kind of volume are you expecting?
Well the whole festival gets around one hundred thousand people a day. Backstage, there’s around four thousand people per day. We’re a crew of five baristas and we expect to crank out a lot of coffee this weekend.
What’s the set up like?
We’re serving up cold brew out of a custom built jockey box and espresso drinks with our trusty La Marzocco Linea.
Sweet. Is the Linea tricked out?
There’s no smoke machine or anything, but it’s PID’d and sports barista lights.
Barista lights? Under the groups?
Yeah, it has the LEDs under the groups.
Tell me more about that jockey box your serving the Cold Brew out of? I understand it was a in-house made custom-job and it looks bad ass…
Yeah, it’s bad ass alright. It’s a pretty standard jockey box setup, but our tech department dressed the whole thing up in a super custom mini beer barrel disguise. They do good work.
Are there acts Stumptown baristas are particularly excited for?
Oh Yeah, There’s a 130 bands. I’ve heard talk about at least Sigur Ros, Jack White, Florence + The Machine, and Black Sabbath, obviously. I’m also trying to walk by the Adidas stage every time I come and go. They have break dancers going all day.
Mike, listen, man…the question that’s on everyone’s lips is what headliner are you looking forward to most? Black Sabbath or Red Hot Chili Peppers?
(Laughs) Well, personally, I’d have to say Black Sabbath. Although I will also say that I’m really hoping for Anthony Kiedis running up to me shirtless to order a cold brew ala Under The Bridge.
And the big news out of Lollapalooza this year was the severe thunderstorms that delayed/cancelled performances for three hours. How’d you guys weather the storm?
In a hotel lobby across the street with about 100 other people. We got lucky and just beat the deluge. It was actually a pretty fun scene in there until all the sub-street bathrooms started flooding. Then they lit coconut scented candles and it got fun again! It only lasted for an hour or so, but I’m glad we weren’t out there when it hit.
