Smashing Pumpkins Celebrate Homecoming Lolla Performance With ‘Pumpkinpalooza’

CHICAGO — The Smashing Pumpkins make their return to the Lollapalooza stage this weekend for the first time since 1994. The rock band is celebrating the homecoming with “Pumpkinpalooza,” featuring several days of events dedicated to all things Smashing Pumpkins. 

The band created in Chicago is kicking off Pumpkinpalooza with an official Lollapalooza aftershow Wednesday at the Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine Ave., to offer fans a rare and intimate glimpse into the Pumpkins’ wide catalog of indie rock. Tickets sold out last week, but are available for resale here starting at $138.05. 

Fans who can’t make it to Wednesday’s performance can catch the band’s exclusive merch pop-up at 900 S. Wabash Ave., only a few blocks away from Lollapalooza’s home base in Grant Park. The pop-up will run from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday-Friday. 

Those who scored tickets to the nearly sold-out music festival can stop by Madame Zuzu’s Celestial Lounge, a special festival-exclusive activation based on Lincoln Park-born frontman Billy Corgan and wife Chloé Mendel Corgan’s tea house and record shop in Highland Park. 

The lounge is offering up matcha, vinyl, exclusive merchandise and more on festival grounds throughout the weekend. 

Also as part of Pumpkinpalooza, the Aviary, 955 W. Fulton Market, is serving up a specialty, limited-edition cocktail in celebration of the band’s homecoming. The “Infinite Mellons” (inspired by the title of the band’s 1995 album “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”) blends shochu, litchi blossom, honeydew and cantaloupe as the cocktail lounge collaborates with Madame Zuzu’s. 

“As a Chicagoan, born and raised, I take great pride in contributing to our city’s immense and colorful cultural fabric,” Billy Corgan said in a press release. “And so this year’s already historic Lollapalooza is that chance to make new memories, new friends, and have a bit of Midwest fun, too, as only we might.”

The Smashing Pumpkins will be taking the Lollapalooza Bud Light stage at 8:30 p.m. Friday and will continue their “Rats In A Cage” nationwide tour throughout the fall, including a stop at the United Center on Oct. 14.