Lollapalooza Issue Statement On Alleged Assault On Performer

By Greg Moskovitch

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The organisers of Lollapalooza have issued a statement about an alleged incident that occurred after a performance by Blood Orange‘s Dev Hynes, during which he and his partner, Samantha Urbani, were attacked by security. Organisers say there are working to “resolve the situation.”

“Late Friday night, we learned of an incident involving an artist and a security guard on site,” wrote Britt Pierce, a publicist for the popular Chicago festival, in a statement provided to Noisey. Since then, we have been in contact with those involved and the authorities, as we work together to resolve the situation. As always, our top priority is to ensure the safety of everyone at the festival.”

As the Chicago Sun-Times reports, hours after Hynes left the stage, he took to Twitter to report that he and Urbani had been attacked by festival security guards. Hynes noted that he was ironically attacked hours after he’d made a speech concerning police brutality and racial profiling.

“Samantha and I just got assaulted by the security. We are about to press charges,” tweeted Hynes yesterday. According to Hynes’ account, the guards “grabbed” Urbani, “I asked what they were doing and they grabbed my neck and threw me to the ground, then two others joined in on me.”

“Everyone saw it. We are pressing charges, I can’t believe it. I’m so upset. Why is this still happening? I just want to make music,” he later added. Hynes also retweeted several followers who claimed that Lollapalooza had been removing comments about the incident from their Facebook.

Hynes thanked fans for their support and said he and Urbani were “both very shaken and I am pretty bruised up,” while Urbani tweeted that she was “feeling extremely violated &generally unsafe.” Hynes also tweeted that one of the guards involved has claimed that the singer assaulted him.

Several punters have taken to the festival’s Facebook page to demand “an official apology to Dev Hynes” from festival organisers, while others have posted about issues with Lollapalooza security. One commenter complained about guard conduct as punters left a performance by Outkast.

Greg Moskovitch
Greg Moskovitch

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