TD Garden cited after dozens taken to hospital at Avicii concert

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) -- Boston police cited the TD Garden for a license violation after nearly 90 people were treated after a concert there Wednesday night.

Authorities say several concert-goers showed up to Swedish D.J. Avicii's concert intoxicated. Sources tell FOX 25 that drugs may have also been involved. At the concert, "numerous young patrons were observed to be in an intoxicated state to the point of being incoherent," police said.

Boston Police and EMS were called to the scene after a Level 2 Mass Casualty Incident was declared.

"Concerts by Avicii have had a history, nationwide, of incidents requiring medical treatment for intoxicated young patrons," the police incident report stated.

The licensed premise violation was for "numerous underage intoxicated patrons" inside the Garden.

Some concert-goers told FOX 25 that they saw multiple attendees who looked to be in their late teens passed out around the arena.

Police say 36 people were taken to the hospital and 50 were treated at the Garden. The people treated and transported ranged in age from 16 to 25 years old.

The venue released a statement about the incident Thursday, saying that half of the "affected guests" were identified before entering the arena and were "immediately" treated there on the scene.

"We continued our proactive policy to identify impaired guests, bring them to first aid for medical evaluation and transport when necessary," the statement read.

Garden officials also stated that before the concert, they "implemented increased precautions such as restricted alcohol sales, additional security and provided two cooling off areas for guests, in addition to the building maintained at normal temperature."

Live Nation released the following statement Thursday: "Live Nation cares deeply about all of the fans and it is truly unfortunate when individuals make poor personal decisions out of our control that could harm themselves and others. Avicii is one of the most beloved artists in music and we have promoted multiple shows for him to hundreds of thousands fans. There is no track record of any issues with widespread intoxication and we have never had to cancel any performance due to reckless behavior involving drugs or alcohol. Anything reported to the contrary is simply false."

After the show, Avicii reached out to his fans on Twitter.

"Just heard the awful news about tonight," read the tweet. "It's a terrible thing. I really hope everyone is ok. My thoughts go to those affected and their families."

Also Wednesday night, three men were arrested in the vicinity of TD Garden on drug-related charges and were expected to be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court Thursday.

The Suffolk County District Attorney's office said that as of Thursday morning, none of the three men had been linked to the dozens of people hospitalized.

Three people overdosed at the D.J. Zedd concert last August at the House of Blues in Boston. One of them, a 19-year-old woman, died of a suspected overdose of the drug 'Molly.'

Cox Media Group