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By Jeff Vorva
The weather gods hit Orland Park’s Pat Benatar concert with their worst shot.
A major storm took place July 13 when the event at the refurbished Centennial Park West was scheduled to open the gates. That caused a delay in opening the gates for 40 minutes which resulted in massive lines and traffic tie-ups.
The concert, which officials said drew close to 4,000 people, did take place as Robin Taylor Zander and Benatar (with Neil Giraldo) performed full sets. But the events leading up to the show caused much angst.
Mayor Keith Pekau said at the July 15 board of trustees meeting that the problems from that night are fixable.
“They are easily solvable,” he said. “We had most of the solutions before the concert ended. We are going to make changes with our future plans to handle circumstances such as these.”
He said the main issues that he heard from patrons were the lines to get in and the number of port-a-potties available.
He said the village will add more metal detectors to allow for a few more lines and changes on how the lines will be handled. He said more port-a-potties will be added but noted that the lines for them on July 13 were “shorter than any concert you’ve ever been to.”
The circumstances and timing of the thunderstorm caused most of the havoc.
“Everyone came at once because of the rain,” Pekau said. “People said they wanted to wait until after the rain to drive there, so they were coming at one time. And in some cases, people were watching the news [of the Donald Trump assassination attempt].
“We never anticipated that many people trying to come through the gates in such a short period of time. It was a worst-case scenario and we learned from it. We’ll be prepared for worst-case scenarios in the future.”
Pekau said the park’s improvements came into play.
“The good news is that the venue handled the crowd easily,” he said. “It was a big crowd, but everyone was comfortable and had their tables out.
“And in past years, a rain like that would have resulted in a cancellation. We’ve seen it. We saw it with Scott Stapp [in 2021]. We had no problems with the drainage. Everything was fine. People could sit. No problems whatsoever with all of the rain that we had. The venue is built right.”
The mayor said the fans – including himself – enjoyed the show.
“It was an incredible crowd and Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo were nice to deal with,” Pekau said. “She still sounds the same as she did 40 years ago. It speaks to how much talent some people have.”
The third and final concert in the summer series is Aug. 17 with One Vision of Queen featuring Marc Martel as the headliner. Glory Days, a Bruce Springsteen tribute band, and Billy Nation, a Billy Joel tribute band, will open.
