Arrest, hospitalizations occur during Dayglow concert
Fifteen hospitalizations and one arrest occurred Friday night at the Dayglow paint party at the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center in downtown Syracuse.
Attendees were hospitalized for overdosing on alcohol or drugs, said Capt. Shannon Trice of the Syracuse Police Department. It is unknown whether they were Syracuse University students, but the majority of those hospitalized were underage, Trice said. The arrest was for harassment and resisting arrest.
Five thousand people attended the sold-out event, a dance party where attendees are splattered with paint. The event was part of the Dayglow BLU (Beats, Love, Unity) tour, which features electronica artists including Steve Aoki, DJ Diplo and Chuckie. Steve Aoki and DJ Diplo have both played concerts at SU events in the past.
The event, targeted at young people in their teens and twenties, attracted a number of SU students. Trice said SPD received warning that there would likely be drinking and drug use, such as Ecstasy and PCP (Phencyclidine) at the event, Trice said.
A Rural/Metro ambulance took three people to the hospital at about 10:30 p.m., one of them was found passed out in a pool of his own vomit, Trice said. There was a no re-entry policy and attendees lingered outside. Many concert goers were visibly disoriented and appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Twenty-five officers from the SPD were on patrol at the event. The Onondaga Sheriff’s Department was also in the area for regular patrols and helped block South State Street off between East Adams and Harrison streets.
Many attendees reported the inside of the concert was crowded and chaotic, and some students left the event early because of the crowds. Theresa LaPuma, a sophomore psychology major, left with her friends at about 10:30 p.m. LaPuma and her friends were up front but kept getting knocked around, she said.
‘It was really fun,’ she said. ‘It was just like once things started building up, I feel like people got out of control and it was overwhelming.’
Ahmed Khan, a senior entrepreneurship and information studies and technology major, said despite crowds, the concert was unbelievable.
‘I’m a senior and this was definitely the best concert I’ve ever been to in the last four years, and honestly, Avicii’s coming up and I’m not even looking forward to it now,’ he said, referring to next weekend’s University Union Juice Jam concert.
Courtney Rutledge, a sophomore English and textual studies major, said she had been to a Dayglow concert previously and this one wasn’t as good as the last.
‘I’ve been to Dayglow before and the time I went before — I went about two years ago in Tampa, in Florida. The security wasn’t as intense, it didn’t take as long to get in. And no one literally got half as sick as they got here,’ she said.
The event began at 7:30 p.m. and ended at 12:30 a.m. Patrol cars with SPD and the Sheriff’s department left the area just after 1:00 a.m.
Published on September 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm
