Lollapalooza wrapped its four-day run in Chicago with 10 arrests and 67 hospital transports after heavy rain turned Grant Park into a muddy expanse. City officials reported zero citations issued during the sold-out festival, which drew tens of thousands of music fans daily.
Chicago authorities and festival organizers navigated a soggy conclusion to this year’s mega music event, balancing heavy weather delays against public safety operations across the downtown park grounds. While the grounds required extensive navigation around water-logged turf, enforcement data released by the city pointed to a quiet weekend on the legal front.
Arrest Totals Drop Slightly While Medical Transports Reach High Level
According to preliminary data released by the Chicago Police Department, the festival logged a total of 10 arrests over its four-day run. That figure marks a slight decline from previous years, keeping in step with recent historical patterns that saw 12 arrests in 2025, nine arrests in 2024, 14 in 2023, 15 in 2022, and 19 in 2021. Officers issued zero citations or ordinance violations during the entire event, according to an Office of Emergency Management and Communications news release.
Medical transports told a different story. Ambulance crews transported 67 concertgoers to area hospitals over the weekend, marking a high level of hospitalizations since 2022, when 68 people were taken for medical care. Comparing previous years, 42 people were taken to the hospital in 2025, 63 in 2024, 55 in 2023, 68 in 2022, and 102 in 2021. The department did not provide details on what led to those hospitalizations.
Weather Delays Transform Grant Park Into Muddy Terrain
Mother Nature played a disruptive role on Saturday, when heavy rain forced organizers to delay gates opening for several hours. The downpour left the grassy surfaces within Grant Park water-logged and muddy for the second half of the festival. Despite the messy conditions underfoot, security teams maintained order, recording only three arrests on Saturday and zero on Sunday. The 10 arrests during the festival were down from last year but in line with the trend of recent years.
Organizers noted that Lollapalooza sold out all 115,000 tickets for each of its four days at Grant Park, although many of those tickets were four-day passes. It’s still too early to know how much this year’s cleanup or repairs will cost. Lollapalooza has faced costly repair bills after rainy weekends in the past; in 2011, heavy rain turned Grant Park into a muddy mess, and organizers paid more than $1 million to repair the grounds.
Daily Breakdown of City Safety Data
City records show that emergency response and security enforcement remained active across the schedule. By day, officials reported:
| Day | Arrests | Ambulance Transports |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday | 4 | 18 |
| Friday | 3 | 22 |
| Saturday | 3 | 16 |
| Sunday | 0 | 11 |
City officials emphasized that proactive planning formed the bedrock of the weekend’s security outcomes, noting that the 10 arrests came even though police issued no citations during the mega festival.
“With public safety as the top priority, the City of Chicago and event organizers worked in advance to plan and refine security measures that were implemented to ensure the safety and security of attendees, artists and staff of the 4-day festival,”
The City of Chicago, press release
As park crews assess the turf damage left behind by tens of thousands of fans packing Grant Park for the sold-out four-day festival, the exact financial tally for repairing the grounds remains undetermined.
