Luke Bryan Concert: Messy People Or Media Hype?

PITTSBURGH (NewsRadio 1020 KDKA) - KDKA Radio's Mike Pintek decided to take a first-hand look at the trash left after the Luke Bryan concert. Producer's Jessica Berardino and Alyssa Marsico joined intern's Jordan Chapman and Jade Hilliard to discuss what they saw.

The group agreed that the scenes shown on television were of only one part of the parking lots. In general the group noted that there was trash, but what they noticed was a lack of garbage cans, dumpsters and even port-o-johns.

Marsico reported she arrived to the parking lot by 9:00am and by 12:00pm the port-o-johns were already full and unable to be used. Berardino added that there were people, not intoxicated, forming their own make-shift line and bathroom behind a dumpster. She noted they weren't stumbling drunk, they just needed a place to go to the bathroom.

(Blake Shelton (L) and Luke Bryan- Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The group agreed that only some of the parking lots had handed out garbage bags, while none that they knew of, had people asking to see a concert ticket before entering the parking lot. Hilliard was one of the strictly tailgating spectators who stayed after the concert began and noted that where she was, garbage bags were tied up and behind vehicles waiting to be picked up.

"To be completely honest, I'm not the biggest country fan, so I wasn't itching to go," said Hilliard. "I truly do believe they (the media) were fishing for trash. Where I was, we cleaned up our spot, I basically saw 2 out of the so many people I was surrounded by, maybe 2 visibly drunk people."

Marsico's tailgate was interrupted when a police officer invited himself to their food and snacks while in the parking lot by the Science Center. Marsico and Berardino noted in that lot alone, there were a handful of officers standing in around talking, not maintaining the crowd.

(Luke Bryan- Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

"Well I'll say that one parking lot that everyone keeps taking a picture of, I feel like the media went to that one because I'm going to put that out there and say the police did not do a good enough job taking care of underage drinkers," said Berardino. She adds to her story that there were kids dancing on cars and swimming in a make shift pool in the bed of a truck.

Numerous stories flooded in to The Mike Pintek Show regarding the quality of the parking lot, none of which stated that it was as bad as the media was making it seem. Callers consisted of concert goers and even the men who were responsible for the clean up.

One man stated during his clean up, he didn't have to do anything extreme that he wouldn't have done after a Steelers tailgate. An owner of a company responsible for some of those lots commented the media has over-done this story.

(Luke Bryan- Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

Mike Pintek took to Facebook and located the Y108 Facebook page. There, the station posed the question, "How was your experience at Luke Bryan's Heinz Field show?" Comments poured in and among them was an interesting remark made by a woman who was at the concert:

"I seen (saw) the news filming the trash segment. They were interviewing people in our area and it was clean and the news team almost disappointed that it was clean. I even heard the guy go to the cameraman, let's go up there it has to be worse...I lost some respect for that news station when I heard that."

Leroy Stotler is the owner of Three Rivers Power Sweep who cleans the stadium lots under contract with Alco Parking Corp. He called into Mike Pintek to make a personal comment regarding the clean-up. He agrees some lots were bad, maybe worse than a Steelers game, but nothing outrageous.

"The trash down there was not as bad as Chesney I would say by a long shot it was not as bad," said Stotler. "There were portions of some of the lots that were bad but in general I think that some of the things that the Steelers and Alco did to try and mitigate the amount of glass down there, which is one of the bigger dangers, did help."

"It wasn't as bad as the Chesney concert, for sure. Maybe worse than a Steeler game, but some of it's getting a little blown out of proportion," said Stotler. His company is responsible for lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, all the main lots around the stadium's, PNC Park and Heinz Field. He adds he was not the organization cleaning up the Science Center parking lot.

Could it be that the media went out looking for a story to report on? The old saying goes, "if it bleeds, it leads."

(Luke Bryan- Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Music Choice)
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