Concert youth drinking targeted

Police charged at least 114 attendees with criminal offenses. Most of those arrested were charged with being under 21 and possessing alcohol. Police also placed at least 228 people in protective custody.

The arrests were part of a broader effort led by Foxborough police to curb rowdiness at the weekend festival, including barring fans who lacked tickets from entering Gillette Stadium parking lots and charging hefty parking fees for concertgoers who arrived early.

The hard line came after police faced similar problems with drinking and rowdiness at last year’s concert and two women, Alexa Latteo, 19, of Mansfield, and Debra Davis, 20, of Milton, who had attended the festival without tickets, died in a car accident that night on Route 1 in Wrentham.

The car in which the women were traveling veered off course as the highway curved and struck a tree. Another passenger, Nina Houlihan of Norton, was injured. State Police at the time were looking at whether speed or alcohol was a factor. Results of the investigation were not available yesterday, a State Police spokesman said.

Davis’s parents spent the past week talking with neighbors and police to get the word out about preventing such tragedies this year. MaryAnn and Steve Davis warned other parents that the environment created at this event should give them pause for thought.

“My daughter was a beautiful young woman with two jobs,’’ MaryAnn Davis said yesterday. “She was a good, solid kid, and she made a bad choice.’’

Davis said she talked with at least one other mother of a young woman who was planning to attend this year’s festival. The woman told her that her daughter had a ticket, but that she was keeping her daughter home, having heard of what happened last year, Davis said.

Members of the Davis family were on a road leading to the stadium this weekend, holding signs urging a crackdown on underage drinking at the festival, and were encouraged by what they saw. “We are hopeful they learned from our mistakes,’’ MaryAnn Davis said.

At last year’s concert, State Police detained 76 people, some facing minor-in-possession charges, in parking lots at and around Gillette Stadium.

In a statement yesterday, Foxborough Police Chief Edward T. O’Leary said this year’s event, which featured singer Kenny Chesney and drew more than 56,000, was a long and challenging one for public safety. As of 2 p.m. yesterday, police were still processing people who had been arrested.

Concertgoers failed to heed calls by police and Gillette Stadium officials not to arrive too early for the late-afternoon festival. Officials had warned that a $40 parking fee, for instance, would go up to $60 if public safety concerns forced parking lots to open earlier than 1 p.m.

But by midmorning Saturday, Route 1 was jammed with traffic. Lots opened at 11 a.m., while security officials turned away dozens of fans without tickets throughout the day. Sweltering temperatures also presented other challenges for police and security, as 60 people were sent to local hospitals.

Fire department officials said paramedics were kept busy tending to people who overheated in the 90-degree weather, and treating alcohol-related medical emergencies.

“There’s not much shade over there,’’ said Scott MacMaster, acting captain of the Foxborough Fire Department.

While last year’s festival was marked with many brawls that broke out in the parking lots, this year was calmer on that front, MacMaster said.

“They had that under control,’’ he said.