ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Lilac Festival gets underway on Friday. Thousands of people are expected at Highland Park, and organizers intend to keep in effect some stepped-up security measures that were put in place last year. 

When the big crowds arrived on the first weekend of the Lilac Festival last year, so too did some trouble. A number of fights broke out, and organizers had to implement an adult supervision policy.  Teenagers had to come with and stay with an adult. This year, that policy stands. 

Anyone under the age of 17 must be escorted by a parent or guardian and must remain with that adult while on festival grounds. All bags will also be checked by security at all points of entry. 

“There’s going to be security officers here, there’s going to be checks at the gate as people come in, and then also roving RPD patrols will also be through the festival grounds themselves,” Rochester Police Captain Greg Bello said. 

Those patrols will be even more visible on certain days and at certain times. “Obviously, your weekends and nights, your Friday and Saturday nights have an increased crowd so we have an increased response and an increased number of officers,” Capt. Bello said.

RPD is also concentrating on making sure the streets around the festival are secure.

“I can’t get into all of the specifics of what we do in terms of security at different major events like this, but one of the things you are going to see around here is, there’s going to be a lot of police officers out here,” Bello said. 

For more information about the security policies for the Lilac Festival, go to https://roclilacfest.com/guest-info/