FOXBORO - Foxboro and state police say last Saturday's fourth Annual New England Country Music Festival drew the rudest parking lot crowd ever at a stadium event, and are working on ways to keep it from happening again.

Fights, car vandalism and long traffic backups - all the way into Norwood - were rampant.

Many of the fans in the parking lot came without tickets - to party, police contend. They passed empty parking lots to park near their friends.

Stadium advisory committee Chairman George Bell called the festival a "soft test" for the Jimmy Buffett concerts on Sept. 2 and Sept. 8.

Bell said he will convene his committee with local and state police and stadium officials to discuss the problem. The groups then will meet with selectmen on Aug. 14. "It was a work in progress, and we'll work on it as a board and as a town," Selectmen Vice Chairman Mark Sullivan said.

At Saturday's event, Foxboro police set a Gillette Stadium record for the number of people taken into custody at one event: 71, including 18 arrests, compared with 44 at last year's festival, according to Police Chief Edward O'Leary.

"At first, the arrests were just foolish drunks (taken into protective custody), but as the night progressed, it got much more intense," O'Leary said.

"Our staff out there did an excellent job of de-escalating some intense fights. There were several assaults on officers, and they had to defuse a couple of large crowd fights."

State police placed 17 people in protective custody, and arrested five others.

"The disrespect for the law enforcement and for each other was the worst I've ever seen," said Lt. Jeff Stuart, commander of the Foxboro state police barracks.

"These fans need to reassess themselves. I don't know how they could go home and look at themselves in the mirror," Stuart said.

Both O'Leary and Stuart said they thought the crowd was younger overall than in past years.

"I'm sure if their parents ever saw how they behaved, they'd be very disappointed," Stuart said.

Stadium spokesman Dan Murphy said the custody totals surprised stadium officials. "I applaud the police for removing those people," he said.

The parking lot crowd caused police far more headaches than the 54,000 fans who had tickets and watched the sold-out festival, headlined by Kenny Chesney.

Inside the Route 1 stadium, it was "a pretty typical event," O'Leary said.

"If we hadn't had the consistent problems with the people in the parking lots, neither of us would be talking right now, because it was just another stadium event, no big deal," O'Leary said.

Murphy said the traffic issues were affected by fans' unfamiliarity with the P-10 parking lot, across the street from Gillette.

Fans were "searching for lots on the stadium side" of Route 1, Murphy said.

Road construction on Route 1 added to fans' confusion, he said.

Stuart said, "there was not a problem with parking. The real problem was people not parking in these spots."

"They were looking for a particular party, a particular lot, a particular friend," Stuart said.

"There was plenty of parking. They would drive by empty lots. There were people who probably sat in traffic for 2 hours."

Bell told selectmen Tuesday night that inadequate parking signs might have contributed to the problem.

"A lot of the parking now is on the other side of the street," Bell said. "It's a lot of new things, with the construction and parking."

O'Leary said his department was still receiving calls Monday and Tuesday from owners of cars that were vandalized in the parking areas during the concert. He said they also got news of a concert-goer who was struck with a bottle near his eye, requiring 50 stitches to close the wound.

Fire officials helped about 500 people between the stadium first aid stations and the parking lots, Fire Chief Gerald McNamara Sr. said.

Ambulances transported 52 people to hospitals.

None of the injuries appeared life-threatening, McNamara said. Dehydration, and facial injuries from fights, were among the causes.

Attleboro's high temperature Saturday was 89 degrees, according to the Attleboro Water Department.

MICHAEL GELBWASSER can be reached at 508-236-0372 or at mgelbwasser@thesunchronicle.com. BILL STEDMAN contributed to this report.