HOT TRACKS LISA ROBINSON

Summertime—and musicians get greedy. From now through Labor Day, more than 1,000 musical acts compete for your money, your time, and your ability to withstand sweltering heat, questionable personal-hygiene facilities, overpriced water, and crowds.

A far cry from the rebellious cultural milestones of the 1960s, today's rock festivals are heavily sponsored corporate affairs, often in the middle of nowhere, with tents for comedy, movies, children, and beer. (For people who just don't like people, several of the bigger rock festivals will broadcast live on the Internet—check the various festival sites and blueroom.att.com for info.)

Lollapalooza is an exception to the "middle of nowhere" concept. For the second year in a row, surrounded by the ghosts of the 1968 Chicago Seven riots, Lollapalooza takes place in Grant Park, in beautiful downtown Chicago, just minutes from the Four Seasons Hotel. Convenient to get to on foot or by local transportation, the Perry Farrell-created celebration features more than 100 acts on eight stages on 69 acres from August 4 to 6. Headliners are the Red Hat Chili Peppers (whose extraordinary, Rick

Rubin-produced Stadium Arcadium is just out), Kanye West, Wilco, Death Cab for Cutie, Sleater-Kinney, Common, Queens of the Stone Age, the Raconteurs (Jack White's new

band), and many—oh so many—more. For info: lollapalooza.com.

Those willing to trek to a 700-acre field in Manchester, Tennessee (about one hour southeast of Nashville's Hermitage and Loews Vanderbilt Hotels), can participate in Bonnaroo. Considered a "hippie," "jam band," "stoner" fest, Bonnaroo is more musically varied this year, with Radiohead, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Beck, Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint, Phil Lesh, Cypress Hill, and about 75 more acts. Non-music activities include a comedy tent, movie tent (which screens Les Claypool's jam-band mockumentary, Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo), and beer tents for those who prefer a liquid buzz. For info: bonnaroo.com.

Spinal Tap aficionados can look forward to the 11th anniversary of Ozzfest. Newly inducted Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Ozzy Osbourne headlines select shows over the summer, and System of a Down, Disturbed, and others of the heavy-metal persuasion bring their vaudeville routines to a town with a Taco Bell near you. The long-running Vans Warped Tour has Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, AFI, the Living End, Saves the Day, and many more. Major country acts are on tour—Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Gretchen Wilson, Brooks & Dunn, Willie Nelson, and T Bone Burnett; other festivals include Milwaukee's Summerfest with (on different nights) Mary J. Blige, Nine Inch Nails, and Alan Jackson, and the season winds up in September with Seattle's Bumbershoot.

And, once again, summer brings a seemingly endless parade of classic rockers performing in "sheds"—partly covered amphitheaters with capacities from 5,000 to 25,000. Trotting out their greatest hits—again—are Styx, Foreigner, Motley Criie, Chicago, Huey Lewis, Goo Goo Dolls, Journey, Def Leppard, Steely Dan, Michael McDonald, Sammy Hagar, and Earth, Wind and Fire. The Rolling Stones are on tour in Europe, Madonna still won't get off the stage, and the prospects are eternal: after all, Frank Sinatra has been dead for eight years and has still been seen on a screen, with a live orchestra, "in concert."

No one understands a life like Frank's.

The British are the kings of the rock festival. Humongous, multi-day affairs dominate this summer's lineups in Leeds, Reading, Hyde Park, Isle of Wight, Staffordshire, and other Monty Pythonsounding places. From June through August, Radiohead, Coldplay, the Who, ⅛ Morrissey, James . Blunt, Roger Waters, Pharrell Williams, Franz Ferdinand, Regina Spekter. Foe Fighters, Richard Ashcroft, Arctic Monkeys, Metallica, and hundreds of others headline various jamborees. In addition, these carnivallike, often freak-show environments are festooned with camping sites, tattoo and piercing tents, the mandatory children's areas, and—at the Download Festival in Donnington Park, from June 9 to 11—yet another rumored appearance by Guns N' Roses. — L.R.