![]() They were playing soccer and someone cut their hand on it,” Angel said. When Angel’s team attempted to practice on the trashed soccer pitch following the Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash, one of the players was injured by glass in the field, Angel said. “We haven’t been able to play at all because the park is so messed up. The park hasn’t been repaired at all,” Angel said. Even once the festivals are gone, the fields are still unusable, he said. Local soccer teams that have used Douglass Park to practice and play games for years have had to move to other parks since the pitch has been fenced off for the recent festivals, said Little Village resident Jorge Angel, who plays in an adult league. It’s a reminder that it’s not your park, actually,” Mullen said. It’s very different from having your park back. With the few days you can get in, there’s still garbage, there’s still machinery, it’s still torn up. With the area remaining damaged for the entirety of the summer, residents can’t enjoy the whole park even after the private festivals take the fences down and the park reopens to the public, said Little Village resident Susan Mullen. That’s further reduced access to the park for families, youth programs and athletic teams, some neighbors have said. But two more festivals have been added since then: Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash in 2019 and Heatwave Festival in 2022. Neighbors of the park have called on the city to stop fencing out residents for weeks of the summer since Riot Fest relocated there in 2015. Credit: Provided Trash remains strewn across Douglass Park following several music festivals. Though the season’s first festival for Douglass Park was the Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash on June 17, the damage there will not be repaired until after Riot Fest in the fall, “when growing conditions for grass are most favorable,” said Park District spokesperson Michele Lemons. Trash is strewn across the grounds, and broken glass bottles remain scattered across the athletic field and landscaping.ĭespite the pleas of hundreds of Lawndale and Little Village residents, Douglass Park will remain in this state until after the summer ends. Portions of the grass turf have been torn up by stage equipment and vehicles, with tire marks left in the ground. The fields have been trampled, leaving the grass dead and soil compacted. The southern half of Douglass Park has been damaged by large crowds and heavy equipment brought in for a series of massive music festivals. ![]() ![]() NORTH LAWNDALE - Douglass Park has sweeping fields, prairie habitats that attract hundreds of colorful birds and magnificent willow trees towering over the edge of the park’s lagoon.īut it has seen better days, neighbors said.
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