Concert’s coda: a messy Esplanade

An unexpectedly large crowd that flocked to a free Saturday evening concert at the Hatch Memorial Shell left behind an unexpectedly large mess that stretched from the Charles/MGH MBTA stop to beyond the Shell. It took until late yesterday afternoon for workers to clean up the debris.

Water bottles, empty beer cases, and piles of bottles and sample cups labeled Nantucket Nectars, an event sponsor, littered the Esplanade, where crews worked through the night Saturday on cleanup. The concert, the final show for the Boston-based band Dispatch, drew an estimated 110,000 fans.

Radio station WBOS, the event's primary sponsor, estimated in a state permit application that the crowd would be only 22,000, said Felix Brown, spokesman for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.

That difference between expectation and reality ''may be something we consider in future permitting processes," Brown said, ''but WBOS has been a professional partner in many such concerts in the past, and we have a strong working relationship."

Department crews using two garbage trucks, a dump truck, and a front-end loader worked until about 4 p.m. yesterday, after initially expecting to quit at about 2 a.m. WBOS agreed to pay for ''significant cost overruns," said Brown, who did not give an estimate. All costs for events on the Esplanade are paid for by sponsors and not state taxpayers.

''We expected a lot of people, but this surpassed expectations," said Adam Klein, WBOS marketing director. ''I was overwhelmed myself. I've never seen anything like it. We're all concerned about making sure the area is clean and the neighbors are satisfied."

With garbage barrels overflowing and a heavy stench wafting through the muggy air, residents passing by late yesterday morning said the mess was worse than after any Fourth of July celebration.

''It's disgusting. I'm mortified," said Jenn Gledhill, a 31-year-old Back Bay resident who was walking her English setter. ''Normally I'd let him off the collar, but no way today. This is the worst I've ever seen it."

The amount of garbage does not compare to a post-Independence Day cleanup, said Brown, the DCR spokesman. But the department customarily has crews ready for the July 4 aftermath. ''People are just used to it being all cleaned up by morning," Brown said.

Indeed, residents walking around the mess said they were shocked by it. Ravi Lala, a 29-year-old cardiology fellow at Boston Medical Center, walked through the crowd during the concert and returned to survey the damage yesterday morning.

''I was not prepared for this," Lala said. ''It looks like a whirlwind hit the place."

Abha Agra, a 37-year-old physician, took her spouse's parents, who were visiting from India, on a tour of the Esplanade.

''I told them how clean and beautiful America is, and I took them to the most beautiful place I could think of," Agra said. ''This is embarrassing. I'm ashamed of it."

Department of Conservation and Recreation workers, aided by state Department of Correction inmate crews who raked and collected the trash, were also caught off guard.

''When I pulled in this morning, I thought, 'Oh boy, it's still here,' " said Andrea Connors, a state employee who was picking up stray litter and riding a golf cart with coworker Paul Norden.

''It was like inviting six people to dinner, and 80 show up," Norden said.

The crowd, mostly of college age, was well behaved but was packed too tightly to have access to garbage barrels, Norden said. A few hundred people were already camped out on the Esplanade when he arrived for work at 6 a.m. Saturday, he said.

About 50 concertgoers were treated for heat stroke, dehydration, alcohol consumption, and drug overdoses. Eighteen people were taken to hospitals for treatment of cuts after fans near the stage threw glass bottles into the air. One fan was arrested.

The enormous crowd led to the emergency closure of Storrow Drive and the use of extra police.

''The event itself went relatively well, considering the number of people that showed up and what potentially could have gone wrong," said Sergeant David Paine, a State Police spokesman.