We were at Skrillex's headlining set on the last day of Lollapalooza this year when the DJ declared that Chicago may be the most "turned up" city in the world. That might have been an exaggeration but a few concertgoers were a little too turned-up for his most recent gig in the Windy City. New reports from his show at Navy Pier last weekend indicate that at least 16 attendees were transported to local hospitals on Saturday, according to YourEDM.com.
According to NBC Chicago, most of the hospitalizations were due to drug overdoses. Fortunately there were no deaths as a result. Andy Bazos, the president of CrowdRX-a company handling healthcare services for events run by SFX Entertainment-explained that the city's policies were the cause for why many were transported to hospitals rather than treated on site.
"The policy in Chicago has been to take anyone who presents to the hospital," he said. "We're there for people who haven't been smart, and safety is number one."
Several of those taken away by ambulance were minors, meaning they were transported to local children's hospitals, which seems awkward. Bazos lamented that underage participants were more immature and that responsibility for their actions were dumped upon the concert promoter. There was no word from NBC Chicago on whether there was an age limit in place, but evidently SFX should have considered at least an 18 year-old bar.
All said and done, things could have gone much worse. More than 10,000 were in attendance for the huge show and it's fortunate that those who were incapacitated were able to be transported through and out of the crowd.
