NEW BRUNSWICK — Rutgers University will permanently cancel Rutgersfest — its annual concert to mark the end of the school year — because the event has grown too dangerous, the school's president said today.

Rutgers President Richard McCormick sent an e-mail to the campus community this afternoon announcing his decision to end the event after 30 years.

"With regret for the loss of a longstanding Rutgers tradition, and with admiration for the students who worked hard to plan and run the concert this year, I have decided that the university can no longer continue to hold Rutgersfest," McCormick wrote.

Last week, New Brunswick police said the large crowds and heavy drinking at Rutgersfest contributed to several shootings, five injuries and 11 arrests in the area.

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Pete Mangarella, New Brunswick’s police director, called the annual daylong free event "the worst thing of the year for the city of New Brunswick." He blamed university officials for failing to address the city’s safety concerns.

McCormick said he is "gravely concerned" about the safety of students and other city residents.

"The safety of our university community, and that of our neighbors, is paramount, and we cannot risk further danger or the possible loss of life. The problems that occur following Rutgersfest have grown beyond our capacity to manage them, and the only responsible course of action is to cancel the event," McCormick wrote.

This year’s Rutgersfest was held Friday on the Busch campus in Piscataway. The event, which is planned by students, included boardwalk style carnival games, food booths and a concert featuring hip-hop artists Pitbull and Yelawolf and electronic-pop act 3OH!3.

An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people attended the free event, including many high school and college students from other schools. When the concert ended at 8 p.m., many of the attendees took university shuttle buses to College Avenue in New Brunswick.

Most of the violence took place in New Brunswick Friday night and Saturday morning in unrelated incidents near bars a few blocks from campus. The injured teenagers, who were all male, included an 18-year-old who was shot once in each leg, a 19-year-old shot twice in the buttocks and another man grazed by a bullet on his hip. A 17-year-old was also hit in the head with a bottle, sending him to the hospital.

The following morning another 17-year-old was hospitalized when he was shot in the hip.

None of the injured people were Rutgers students.

Rutgers officials said they stepped up security at this year’s Rutgersfest at the request of city officials. The university paid for several dozen additional New Brunswick and campus police officers to patrol the area.

Rutgersfest was planned by the student-run Rutgers University Programming Association and the university’s Department of Student Life using a portion of the money students pay in their mandatory student fees.