Lollapalooza closes with muddy, rainy dance party (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Mouse ears in the mud. It seemed a fitting end to the 20th anniversary of Lollapalooza, the three-day music festival that started under warm, sunny skies but ended on Sunday night in a rainy dance party.

The Canadian progressive dance music artist deadmau5 -- pronounced like "dead mouse" -- was one of two headliners, along with the Foo Fighters, to close out of the event.

Tens of thousands of fans grooved in puddles to deadmau5's pulsating rhythms, many of them wearing their signature mouse ears on their heads, a seemingly fitting tribute to this year's festival that was heavy on dance music.

A record 270,000 people were estimated to have attended the sold-out Lollapalooza, founded in 1991 by Perry Farrell, frontman of the alternative rock group Jane's Addiction.

British rockers Coldplay and Muse were featured on the festival's first day on Friday while the second day was marked by U.S. hip-hop acts Eminem and Atmosphere and neo-soul artists Cee Lo Green and Mayer Hawthorne, as well as the Country.

Two bands that rose to stardom in the early 1980s each played rousing sets over the weekend, with new wave group The Cars steely performing hits "Good Times Roll" and "Just What I Needed."

Big Audio Dynamite, led by former Clash singer Mick Jones which reunited earlier this year, delivered their mix of arena rock, funk and world music in what seemed a perfect soundtrack for a summer night in Chicago's Grant Park.

EIGHT STAGES, 140 MUSIC ACTS

Over the three-day festival, revelers took in some 140 different musicians on eight different stages, with the two main sets located on separate ends -- more than a mile apart -- of the sprawling park.

"It was the perfect venue. It's a really cool setup," said A.J. Sunder, who traveled to Chicago from Minnesota with his girlfriend and who, at 20 years-old, was born the same year as the first Lollapalooza.

The dance music tent, Perry's Stage, was one of the more popular destinations and on the first night of the concert. Los Angeles dubstep artist Skillrex inspired such an outpouring of people that the stage had to be temporarily shutdown.

Saturday, part of the tent's paneled roofing was removed to allow for better air flow after it became so hot and humid that some concertgoers struggled to catch their breath.

Torrential rain led to an early end of Sunday's show for some, with the crowd noticeably thinner after the downpour.

Sunder, who sought shelter under a nearby parking garage, said it was worthwhile even with the storm.

"I got my money's worth," he said, adding that his personal favorite performance was by the New York electronic act Ratatat.

(Reporting and writing by Michael Hirtzer; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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All eyes on Beyonce as muddy Glastonbury nears end (Reuters)

PILTON, England (Reuters) – Pop star Beyonce takes the main stage at Glastonbury on Sunday as the closing act, hoping to repeat husband Jay-Z's success in 2008 and help a huge crowd banish thoughts of mud and the long trip home.

Around 180,000 people crammed on to Worthy Farm in picturesque southwest England for three days of music and fun at one of the world's biggest music festivals. The abiding memory for many this year will be the mud.

Heavy rain on Friday and before turned the 900 acre site into a giant bog, but it failed to dampen the mood among music lovers who came to see a bewildering choice of hundreds of acts across dozens of stages.

"We managed to survive in the most adverse conditions," said festival founder Michael Eavis. "We are survivors, after 41 years," he told reporters.

The sunshine broke out on Sunday and bikinis replaced raincoats as the festival geared up for its Sunday night climax.

Jay-Z headlined in 2008, causing controversy among some of British rock's biggest names who said hip-hop had no place at the revered event. But the performer silenced his critics and rap is now a major part of the Glastonbury schedule.

Fans speculated that Jay-Z might join Beyonce on stage and that she may also reunite with members of her former band Destiny's Child.

Eavis was briefly distracted by questions about the death of a senior member of Britain's ruling Conservative Party, who was found in a luxury accommodation area on Sunday morning.

He did not name the deceased, but British media said he was Christopher Shale, chairman of West Oxfordshire Conservative Association. Initial reports gave the cause of death as a heart attack, but Eavis said he understood it was suicide.

U2 PROTEST GRABS HEADLINES

Friday night's headliners U2 impressed critics with a string of their greatest hits performed in the driving rain.

A small pressure group called Art Uncut inflated a large balloon with the words "U Pay Tax 2?" in protest against the band's decision several years ago to relocate its operations from Ireland to the Netherlands for tax purposes.

Campaigners complained of rough handling by security guards who forced them to take the balloon down, but Eavis shrugged off the criticism, saying the story had been exaggerated.

"It was only one balloon," he said. "It was all churned up as being a huge thing, but it wasn't at all."

"We didn't want to upset anyone," he said, adding that U2 lead singer Bono had been aware of the protest. "It was all done very, very gently."

Coldplay played the main Pyramid stage slot on Saturday, watched by tens of thousands of people as they worked their way through a set of songs old and new.

Pulp were surprise guests on the smaller The Park stage, and drew a record crowd there of around 30,000. London rapper Tinie Tempah was one of the most popular performers this year, as were the Chemical Brothers, blues veteran B.B. King and Elbow.

Glastonbury has grown from a humble gathering of 1,500 people on Eavis's dairy farm in 1970, each paying one pound ($1.60) and receiving free milk, to a giant celebration of music costing 195 pounds for a basic ticket.

There will be no festival in 2012, but Eavis said he already had three major acts lined up for 2013.

(Editing by Jan Harvey)

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