PARK WILL NO LONGER HOST FESTIVAL

Summer Camp Decision Comes After Drug Arrests

Three Sisters Park has had enough of Summer Camp.

The annual outdoor music festival more than doubles the population of
Chillicothe, with concertgoers from across the country trekking to
this Peoria County town.

For three days and nights last month, more than 8,000 Summer Camp
attendees reveled in jam band harmony while shelling out their tourist
dollars to many of the local businesses.

Unfortunately, the concert also has come to symbolize a draw for
illegal drug users, distributors and potential life-threatening
consequences.

As a result, park manager Chris Cassidy said the privately owned Three
Sisters will no longer host the event.

"It's mainly because of the injuries being associated with the
druggies," Cassidy said Monday.

The decision came after the park received a petition from a doctor at
OSF Saint Francis

Medical Center, along with the signatures of more than 80 other
physicians, nurses and staff at the Peoria hospital requesting the
festival come to a halt.

Dr. Richard Frederick, an emergency room physician at OSF who worked
the same weekend as the late May concert, said his action was prompted
by the "numerous drug overdoses" coming into the hospital during the
event.

"Somebody is going to die one of these days," Frederick said Monday.
He estimated 20 to 30 people were hospitalized for overdoses from
various drugs, including LSD, GHB (the so-called date rape drug),
cocaine, amphetamines and alcohol.

"Whether you realize it or not, this has turned into one of the
Midwest's most popular venues for the abuse of illegal drugs,"
Frederick wrote in the petition dated June 1 and on letterhead from
the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria.

Agents with the Multi-County Narcotics Enforcement Group arrested 30
people involved in the illegal sale of drugs during the festival. They
also seized 2,373 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, 91 hits of LSD, 394
grams of marijuana, and smaller amounts of heroin, cocaine, Ecstasy
and ketamine.

MEG director Larry Hawkins previously said there were "people calling
out what drugs they had for sale, but they were a little less obvious
about it" than last year.

Despite attending this year's festival and seeing none of what
Frederick related, Cassidy noted: "This is a family park; that's not
what we're about."

Summer Camp promoter Jay Goldberg said the music festival will go on,
with or without Chillicothe.

Goldberg, who already has received proposals from other communities -
mostly from outside the state - said he believes the Three Sisters
Park board made a hasty decision.

"I'd love to see Summer Camp continue at Three Sisters Park, but they
need to decide whether they want to host big events," Goldberg said.
"Anytime you have big events - look at the NASCAR races or a tailgate
party at a Jimmy Buffet concert - there's some potential for something
to happen. With big crowds, it all goes hand-in-hand."

Goldberg said he doesn't condone drug use and that emergency personnel
were in place for all serious situations. He added that Frederick, an
attending physician at OSF, "is in the position of authority; it's
unethical."

Frederick, an ER doctor for more than 25 years, said his petition was
not sanctioned by the hospital, and he did not pressure anyone to
sign. He said he simply left it on a desk for others to sign if they
wished.

"My concern is with the health of these kids," he said.

Chillicothe Police Chief Steve Maurer said most arrests at the event
were for drug offenses.

"Anytime you double the size of the town, you're going to have some
problems," he said.

"But 95 percent of the people at Three Sisters were here to listen to
music and have a good time and spend their money in Chillicothe,"
Maurer said. "The other 5 percent are those who follow the concerts
selling drugs. You'll have that at any concert, whether it's here, in
Peoria or wherever."