This year, the nation’s largest music festival will build larger and more frequent fencing in the Grant Park Conservancy to prevent fence-jumpers and landscape trampers that infiltrated last year’s festivities.
Muddy, foot-stomping festival-goers damaged roughly 80 percent of the conservancy grounds at last year’s festival and coordinators hope the new fencing, increased security guards and a stronger turf will keep the ground damage to a minimum.
Last year, packs of up to several hundred teens tried to topple chain-link fences along the east side of Grant Park. The gate crashers reportedly organized through a Facebook group, and the party-loving destruction left the Grant Park Conservancy with “one of the worst aftermaths.”
Though many attributed the damage to rainy conditions and muddy ground, this year’s drought isn’t leaving that open as an excuse.
Despite showers and storms recently gracing the Chicago area, drought times are far from over, leaving the festival’s muddy reputation behind.
