[nggallery id=11]In the first two days of Lollapalooza, I’ve seen four incidents of people coming in over the fences without paying. The first time was during Mavis Staples’ set on Friday. As Staples was talking onstage about the march to freedom, security guards were marching out a couple of fence-crashers they’d caught. Later on Friday, I saw one guy scrambling over the fence to the west of that same Budweiser stage. Then a group of a dozen or so came over the fence in the same area. No security personnel were in the area at the time, and they all got in.
The biggest breach,, shown in the photographs above, came Saturday during the set by Stars on the Budweiser stage. It was a large group. I estimated about 40 people, then asked some other people who’d witnessed the incident how many people they thought they’d seen. One said 50, and another said 70. Most of these crashers appeared young, probably high-school age. They came all at once, climbing over the fence along Lake Shore Drive near the northeast corner of the Lollapalooza grounds. Then they knocked over a second fence, which completely fell to the ground. As audience members laughed, pointed or cheered, the kids scrambled into the park, most of them apparently getting away. The security guards grabbed a few of the crashers and were holding them near the fence when I left the scene. Later in the day, the fence they’d pushed over was back in place.
As always, Robert, great photos and writing.