Tussle Over Fake Lollapalooza Tickets Ends With Shattered Hotel Window, Three Injured

A heated melee reportedly broke out between a group of three in Chicago on Sunday, Aug. 1, due to one of the men selling fake Lollapalooza tickets.

Two men, aged 29 and 38, were involved in a violent confrontation with an alleged ticket scalper, 26, who police said sold the duo fake wristbands for the Lollapalooza music festival, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

The two men confronted the alleged counterfeit seller in the street for handing them the fake Lollapalooza tickets. They were reportedly accompanied by two young women, aged 27 and 23.

The altercation between the three became so heated that at around 5:15 p.m., the trio crashed through the ground-floor window of the Congress Hotel, located in the 500 block of South Michigan Avenue, according to the Chicago Tribune.

All three were left injured by the fight, according to the police. The bogus seller suffered minor cuts to their hands and legs while the two men suffered minor injuries to the head and lacerations on their legs. All are in stable condition, according to CBS Chicago.

When first responders found the men, they were promptly patched up with tourniquets and brought to the nearby Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Their identities have been kept from the public as of press time.

The fight broke out as Lollapalooza aims for a triumphant return after a one-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with a full line-up of hit performers that includes Megan Thee Stallion and Young Thug.

Its comeback has pushed through despite concerns that the music festival will become a COVID-19 hotspot as the Delta variant pushes the number of infected people in the United States up.

Though Lollapalooza is requiring revelers to present COVID-19 vaccinations cards or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours, the lack of a mask mandate or social distancing in the music festival makes it a possible hotspot for the new Delta variant, especially as Chicago is currently averaging 200 new cases per day, the Guardian reported.

“When you have 100,000 or more people who are in a fairly enclosed space and there’s no social distancing, the vast majority are not wearing masks, you are going to get some transmission of COVID-19 Delta variant,” Infectious disease expert Dr. Tina Tan said.