Some in Grant Park’s shadow brace for Lollapalooza’s return and its high stakes for Chicago public safety
Street musician Arthur Riley plays his guitar at Michigan Avenue and Monroe Street in the Loop on Aug. 2, 2023.
and Soldier Field concerts by global superstars Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran. Chicago police said they would be ready for the mega-event.And the mood among some residents and at some businesses near the park as Lollapalooza approached might best be described as cautiously optimistic on the security front.
“Those particular dynamics are well in place, scaling up of course, because we are anticipating a larger crowd,” Johnson said. “But I’m confident that the structures that have been put in place, it’s gonna make for an incredible, these next four days, five days.” While the threat of violence is the priority for law enforcement working the festival, first responders will also be on alert for medical emergencies, often brought on by the summer heat and an overindulgence of alcohol and recreational drugs. In 2018, 160 festival attendees were hospitalized, city officials said at the time. The year before, more than 230 concertgoers were taken to nearby hospitals.
He’s not expecting the big bucks to roll in during Lollapalooza. While the crowds of concert-going young people “are never any trouble,” he said, they don’t have paper bills. But the event did not unfold without further reminders of Lollapalooza’s high stakes for public safety. According to police and prosecutors, a festival security guard cooked up a phony mass shooting threat so she could leave work early during the second day of the festival.
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