Lolla Repair Will Be Pricey

The event promoter - not the City of Chicago - must cover the fest's damage

Based on the amount of destruction left in its wake, Lollapalooza 2011 must have been one heck of a party.

Music lovers, revelers and dancers stomped the yard in Grant Park, and softened up the soil. Sunday's thunderstorms finished the job, creating sloppy fields and pools of stagnant water. 

SPECIAL SECTION: Lollapalooza 2011

All that party-loving destruction is going to cost event organizers some cash to correct.

The bill to fix the Grant Park terrain could reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and the work to repair the damage could take weeks, the Chicago Sun-Times reports

"This is probably one of the worst [aftermaths]," said Grant Park Conservancy President Bob O'Neill. "The turf damage is substantial, bushes were trampled...there's a little bit of damage to some gardens."

It's anyone's guess at this point what the final bill will be. It cost more than $200,000 to restore the park last year. Hutchinson Field, where the Foo Fighters rocked the crowds Sunday night, could need up to $80,000 in repairs, said O'Neill.

However, the City of Chicago will not need to spend a cent.

The city's contract with C3 Presents LLC requires the event promoter to cover the festival's damage, said Chicago Park District Spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner.

"Our priority is ensuring the park returns to the state it was before in the festival as quickly as possible," C3 Presents spokesperson Shelby Meade wrote the in an e-mail to the paper.

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