Pittsburgh public safety officials said more than 30 people were taken to hospitals and several others were arrested in and around the Kenny Chesney concert on the North Shore tonight.
Wendell Hissrich, city public safety director, said EMS personnel saw 99 people, 37 of whom required transport to a medical facility. He said the vast majority were related to “over-intoxication” and dehydration No one was in serious condition.
Police said five people have been arrested inside the stadium on charges including trespassing, ticket robbery, simple assault and public intoxication.
Several fights have also been reported, police said, and an officer injured his hand while breaking up a fight.
Earlier in the day, state police said they cited 36 people for underage drinking around Heinz Field in the hours before Saturday night’s Kenny Chesney concert.
Officers from the state police Bureau of Liquor Control conducted a sweep of the parking lots surrounding the stadium on the North Shore about 10 a.m. and found the juveniles drinking alcohol.
Among the juveniles cited were: 16 20-year-olds, 10 19-year-olds, seven 18-year-olds, two 17-year-olds and one 15-year-old, according to police.
Police said they also charged three people with drug offenses.
A 26-year-old suspect was found with a small amount of marijuana, and a 21-year-old and 22-year-old were charged with having an electronic cigarette that contained liquid THC, one of many chemical compounds found in marijuana, police said.
As the concert let out around 10:30 p.m. and cars began to clear from the parking lots, a reeking, hulking mass of garbage leftover from the day’s earlier festivities began to appear behind the exodus of country music fans.
Pickup trucks crunched glass bottles underneath tires; fluid from portable toilets overflowed into the street; people covered their noses with their shirts to escape the stench.
Jen Telfer of Virginia Beach, Va., said she’s been to at least 20 Kenny Chesney concerts and has never seen as much waste left behind as she did Saturday night in Pittsburgh.
“I have never seen this amount of trash, ever,” she said. “What are we, savages?”
Robin Hailey, who traveled to Pittsburgh from Virginia Beach with Ms. Telfer, expressed disappointment with what he saw in the parking lots and streets after the concert let out.
“This is not the Kenny crowd, that’s not what we do,” he said. “No Shoes Nation does not do that.”
“I feel bad for the city,” he added. “I’m ashamed that people come to that.”
Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com.
First Published: July 3, 2016, 12:26 a.m.
Updated: July 3, 2016, 4:11 a.m.
