Taxes Upped For Lolla

The Chicago Park District has extended Lollapalooza’s run at Grant Park to 2021, but promoter C3 Presents will need to throw more tax dollars to the city, and it will affect ticket prices.

The deal was approved by the park board March 14. C3 was originally given a tax break to help get Lolla off the ground but, with the festival’s great success, the district had a hard time justifying an extension. The Austin, Texas-based promotion company will pay a minimum of $4.05 million in local taxes this year, up from $2.7 million under the old deal, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The amount will increase to $5.4 million by 2021.

“This is a good deal for the city and we felt it is the right thing to do,” C3’s Charlie Jones told the paper. “But it will affect ticket prices. There will be an increase. How much? To be determined. But it’s been keeping me up at night.”

Sources told the paper that the negotiations, which went on for months, were sometimes heated – a statement C3 called “100 percent false.” It was also rumored that C3 had to accept the offer or would be shown the door. It’s “100 percent false to say C3 was forced into any agreement or ever considered leaving Chicago.

“C3 came to the park district six months ago suggesting a reworking of the agreement to pay taxes,” C3 said in a statement, and Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner told the paper the negotiations were amicable.