Lollapalooza concert grounds turn into mud pit
BY Art golab Staff Reporter August 5, 2012 7:26PM
Lollapalooza Day Three, damaged grounds from yesterday's storms that forced the evacuation from the overflowed music fest. music fans walk into the muddy field near the Red Bull Soundstage. Sunday, August 5, 2012. | Scott Stewart~Sun-Times
Updated: September 7, 2012 6:17AM
A drenching downpour and 100,000 pairs of feet turned parts of the Lollapalooza concert grounds into a mud pit for the second year in a row.
But unlike last year, when concert promoter C3 Presents handled repairs to the field at Grant Park, the Park District will do the job and send the bill to the promoter.
After C3 took two months last year to fix the field, the city changed the terms of the contract and will control the repair process.
“We made changes from last year,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Sunday. “We made the change so the organizers of Lollapalooza will pay the Park District to run the cleanup and restoration and it will all again run smoothly.”
Emanuel praised city workers’ response to the storm.
“I think we should take our hats off to all the city employees, public safety people and OEMC,” the mayor said. “We moved 100,000 people out and 100,000 people back in in record time and security.”
Conditions Sunday ranged from dry and dusty to muddy sludge. The real drawback is the stench: Each of these fields reeks of either an old gym sock or a neglected kitchen drain.
Contributing: Thomas Conner
