A week before Riot Fest is scheduled to begin in Douglas Park on Chicago's West Side, St. Anthony Hospital filed a federal lawsuit to stop the three-day concert festival from taking place, according to the Chicago Tribune.
St. Anthony Hospital's attorneys filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against Riot Fest on Sept. 4, alleging that its "extreme" noise would compromise the safety of the hospital's patients, in addition to disrupting the neighborhood and causing congestion, according to the report. The music festival is scheduled for Sept. 11 through 13.
"The bottom line is that Saint Anthony's patients will not be able to peacefully heal when being forced to listen to heavy metal, rap and rock music blaring from stacked amplifiers just a few hundred feet away," the lawsuit says.
A spokeswoman for Riot Fest responded to the lawsuit on Saturday, saying, "Attorneys for St. Anthony stated that they would file a lawsuit to seek to stop the festival unless the hospital was paid $158,000."
The hospital denied the allegation. "We are not going to resort to name-calling and mudslinging. However, Riot Fest is lying, plain and simple," said Kathryn Grosso, a spokeswoman for St. Anthony Hospital, according to the report.
The lawsuit notes that the hospital is located in a legal quiet zone by city ordinance. According to the hospital, representatives reached out numerous times to organizers of Riot Fest to discuss their concerns, and Riot Fest promised they would control the noise. However, the hospital says these promises were broken.
"Based on the work and cooperation with St. Anthony's Hospital, community representatives and Aldermen Cardenas, Scott and Ervin, Riot Fest was granted all required permits and approvals from the City (of) Chicago and the various offices and departments involved in the permitting process," Riot Fest's spokeswoman responded.
The festival would bring in millions of dollars to the city, open 1,000 jobs for local residents and attract tourism to a part of Chicago that does not often attract visitors, according to the report. Its location was moved to Douglas Park after causing excessive damage and disruption to the Humboldt Park neighborhood.