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Few Arrests Made At Kenny Chesney Concert

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Pittsburgh officials say they've learned their lessons since the messy Kenny Chesney concert three years ago, resulting in a comparatively small number of arrests and a little less mess left over in the parking lots.

At a conference Sunday morning, Pittsburgh officials discussed the aftermath of Saturday night's Kenny Chesney concert.

Pittsburgh chief operations officer Guy Costa estimated less than 40,000 people were inside the stadium for the concert, while about 15,000 showed up in the surrounding area just to tailgate and party. Out of a total of about 55,000 people, Pittsburgh Police Chief Cameron McLay says there were 7 physical arrests and 1 summons arrest.

"We had about seven physical arrests, all for alcohol-fueled violence or other types of, uh, misbehavior, shall we say, a summons arrest, and about [four] citations issued," Chief McLay said. "So for the number of people and the amount of alcohol, those are low numbers. Largely, they're low because officers did everything they could to try to maintain order without having to make arrests. Our objective wasn't to fill the jails or write a ton of tickets, but rather maintain order."

According to state police, 36 citations were issued for underage drinking in the Heinz Field parking lots.

When Kenny Chesney came to Heinz Field in 2013, there were 49 arrests inside the stadium alone and another 24 in the surrounding area. In 2015, only 10 arrests were made.

Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich also mentioned that people who appeared to be overly intoxicated were not being allowed into Heinz Field, which he believed help prevent fights inside the stadium.

Hissrich said 99 patients were seen by EMS with 37 people transported to local hospitals. Most of the incidents were because of possible over-intoxication or a combination of alcohol and dehydration.

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Costa said that they have learned from what happened in 2013 and 2015. They believe limiting the hours that people could tailgate in the parking lot and passing out garbage bags helped to cut down on the amount of litter left over in the parking lot.

"I think over the past couple years, we've seen great strides, great improvement," Costa said. "We need to do a little bit of tweaking. We have some ideas for the next concert, for the future."

Those ideas include putting dumpsters along West General Robinson Street to further cut down on litter.

Costa estimates clean-up took about 6 hours. Crews began cleaning up after the concert-goers and tailgaters around midnight and were finished just before daybreak.

48 tons of garbage was collected.

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