Remembering the Sod/Bonfires at Great Woods – Lollapalooza ’92

Were you lucky enough to see Lollapalooza 92 at Great Woods in Mansfield, Massachusetts? How many times have you told the story of the bonfires or the turf getting ripped up since?

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I've only been worried for my safety at a concert twice, and Pearl Jam played a part in both instances. Lollapalooza 92 had an incredible lineup: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Ministry, Ice Cube, Jesus & Mary Chain, and Lush. We got tickets for Saturday, August 8, 1992 in the 800 section in the seats closest to the lawn. I'll never forget seeing Pearl Jam's bassist Jeff Ament riding his bicycle around the parking lot before the show checking out the miles of vehicles pulling into the event.

The show started at 2PM, and by the time Ministry hit the stage it was getting dark. A few songs into Ministry's set, people on the lawn started ripping up chunks of the grass and mud and started hurling them into the seats. What started as a few here and there quickly turned into a few hundred, and soon we couldn't even see them coming. I got whacked a few times, and we all thought about taking off before it got worse. Right after the lawn assault, the wooden perimeter fence got ripped down from the back of the lawn, and small bonfires were lit. I'll never forget looking back at the lawn and seeing people jump across, around, and through those flames. What a memory.

The second Pearl Jam concert that shook me was at the Meadows in Hartford in October 1996, when police started using mace to subdue fence jumpers and a few drunk idiots near the rear of the seats. Getting mace in your eyes and nose out of nowhere is terrifying, we had no idea what was happening at the time, and it took a few moments to figure out what had happened. Ok, maybe I wasn't really scared in Hartford, but Lollapalooza 92 at Great Woods in Mansfield, Massachusetts? Wow.