The Great Summer-Festival Showdown: It Begins Today

This weekend, two huge summer festivals–Lollapalooza, at Chicago’s Grant Park, and the Virgin Festival, at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course–are taking place, a curious quirk of scheduling that has resulted in the nation’s outdoor-loving music fans to make Big Decisions. While fans of Interpol, Amy Winehouse, Modest Mouse, and TV On The Radio could go to either festival (if Richard Branson was smart, he’d set up a Virgin America-branded shuttle for bands playing both shows), those hoping to hear other artists weren’t so lucky. If you’re still on the fence about where your travel budget for the summer should go, we pit the festivals against each other, head-to-head style, after the jump:

Number Of Stages Lollapalooza: 9. Virgin: 3. Advantage: Virgin, if only because their stages have descriptive names like “North” and “South”; one Lolla stage is so named that people will have to tell their friends to “meet me by MySpace.” No thanks.

Weather forecast Lollapalooza: Clear tonight, low of 70; 30% chance of rain tomorrow, high of 81; 60% chance of rain Sunday, high of 85. Virgin: Cloudy tomorrow, high of 94; 30% chance of rain Sunday, high of 84. Advantage: A draw. Either way, you’re going to be really, really sweaty.

’90s Act Back To Get Everyone’s Nostalgia Riled Up Lollapalooza: Pearl Jam. Virgin: Smashing Pumpkins. Advantage: Lolla. The fact that Pearl Jam is touring with more than 50% of its original members is a big point in their favor; the fact that Billy Corgan will probably go on some long anti-downloading rant mid-set seals the victory for the other side.

Old Guard Member Lollapalooza: Iggy & The Stooges. Virgin: The Police. Advantage: Lolla. The Sting factor looms too large. Now, if we put Iggy up against Cheap Trick, this may be a fight.

Crazy High-Concept Spectacle Lollapalooza: Daft Punk. Virgin: Panic! At The Disco. Advantage: Lolla. Honestly, against anyone else, it would be Panic! and their contortionists in a walk!–but the Daft Punk stage show just looks too good to pass up.

Act That Must Have Been Named During An All-Night Bender Lollapalooza: Slightly Stoopid. Virgin: Infected Mushroom. Advantage: Lolla. Who wants to think about infected anything when you’re beholden to eating from the on-site food stands all day?

Terrible, Terrible Act Lollapalooza: Mickey Avalon. Virgin: Matisyahu. Advantage: Virgin. Because being subjected to a Mickey Avalon set is a fate worse than humidity.

The winner: Sure, Lollapalooza has Daft Punk and Pearl Jam and !!!, but the presence of Mickey Avalon on its bill made this race a lot tighter than it should have been. Still, Lolla seems like the winner here overall, especially since being in Chicago makes the possibility of Kanye West running out to perform “Stronger” higher than 0%.

VIRGIN FESTIVAL by Virgin Mobile [Official site] Lollapalooza 2007 [Official site]