Dev Hynes and Samantha Urbani Say They Were Assaulted by Security at Lollapalooza

The couple are filing charges against privately hired security staff at the festival.

August 03, 2014



Blood Orange's Dev Hynes and Friends' Samantha Urbani are threatening to press charges against Lollapalooza after claiming that they were both assaulted by security staff following the Blood Orange set at the Chicago festival this weekend. Taking to Twitter to vent their shock, Hynes says the staff involved "grabbed" Urbani and then "grabbed my neck and threw me to the ground." The incident occurred just hours after Hynes gave a speech on racism and police brutality and Urbani "begged [the] audience to take care of each other and film arrests," while both were wearing t-shirts emblazoned with anti-police brutality messages. Hynes', shown above, bears the names of victims of racist attacks and police brutality, including Trayvon Martin.

Urbani has since tweeted to say that the staff involved in the alleged assault were privately hired security at the stage and not official festival staff, but has now deleted the tweet. Lollapalooza have also issued a statement themselves, saying: “Late Friday night, we learned of an incident involving an artist and a security guard on site. Since then, we have been in contact with those involved and the authorities, as we work together to resolve the situation. As always, our top priority is to ensure the safety of everyone at the festival.”

See the couple's account of the incident below, including Hynes' appeal for witnesses to get in touch.











Dev Hynes and Samantha Urbani Say They Were Assaulted by Security at Lollapalooza