County officials establish rave task force in wake of Electric Daisy Carnival

 

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to establish a task force to examine and "enhance rave safety" after last month's Electric Daisy Carnival led to more than 100 hospitalizations. A 15-year-old girl died last week of a suspected drug overdose after attending the two-day dance event at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and adjoining Exposition Park, which drew between 80,000 and 100,000 people per day. 

The motion to establish the task force follows a call last week by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to establish a rave moratorium. Coliseum officials announced last week a temporary ban on new contracts with rave operators as they consider whether to allow another such event.

"While the Coliseum Commission has taken steps to temporarily stop these events from being held on its property, the county must work with other key community stakeholders to look at the larger public health risks posts by raves and other similar events," the motion reads.

The motion defines a rave as "musical events" that "tend to be held over ... long periods of time -- sometimes days -- in large venues on both public and private property." Among the issues the task force seeks to investigate are the location, hours and size in "which these events can legally be held," as well as education efforts to "raise awareness about the potential dangers of rave parties."  

The task force is to be made up of city, police and hospital representatives. A spokesman for Yaroslavsky's office noted that the task force will include representatives from the music and promotion industry. The goal of the task force, reads the motion, is to "develop countywide recommendations to enhance rave safety by mandating that rave promoters and sponsors incorporate public health recommendations into their event planning, for example by requiring the use of private emergency medical staff."

Electric Daisy was the first of what were to have been multiple electronica-focused events planned in L.A. over the coming weeks, including July 17's Hard L.A. at the Los Angeles State Historic Park, a 36-acre plot just east of Chinatown. This summer's other big electronica event, the Love Festival, is scheduled to take place over the Los Angeles Sports Arena, next to the Coliseum, on Aug. 21. It was unclear how the call for a moratorium might affect that event, although a formal decision could be made as early as July 16, when the Coliseum Commission is slated to meet. 

Approximately 120 people were transported to local hospitals during the two-day Electric Daisy Carnival. Los Angeles police made 118 arrests, mostly for drug possession. at the event, which is now in its 14th year, and more the 200 were reported injured by Los Angeles Fire Department officials.

Insomniac, which organized Electric Daisy, issued a statement attributed to Simon Rust Lamb: "We hope that the task force, with input from a broad range of the community and stakeholders, including representatives from the musical events industry will create responsible and reasonable recommendations which can be implemented for all musical events in the county."

This is far from the first time raves -- or large, dance-focused music events -- have had their safety questioned. A 2000 story in The Times noted that the very mention of the word "rave" conjured "images of mysterious, illegal warehouse parties where dancers groove on machine-like music and synthetic drugs such as Ecstasy."

Gary Richards, a veteran dance music promoter who's hosting Hard L.A., said in interview last week, and published in Saturday's Calendar, that he is working with the LAPD to make sure his event goes off without problems. But Richards also insists that his event shouldn't be called a rave.

"I do not want to be a rave. I do not want kids in there eating pacifiers," he said, referring to some ravers' practice of holding pacifiers in their mouths to keep from grinding their teeth, which is a sometimes involuntary side effect of Ecstasy use.

"I'm trying to get to music fans who love this music. I've been involved with electronic music for 20 years," Richards continued, "and I've seen this cycle happen three times. It gets popular, and then something happens and then it goes away. My goal is to do these events with quality artists and make them safe and secure."

In an interview last week, Los Angeles-based electronic experimenter Flying Lotus (real name: Steven Ellison), an Electric Daisy veteran, was asked by about the county's move to investigate and possibly limit large-scale dance events. 

"If they shut them down, we’ll find a way," Ellison said. "That’s the beauty of young people. It doesn’t have to be a huge event that everyone knows about. Maybe it needs to be a little more underground, like it used to be."

The task force is to report its findings and recommendations within 120 days.

--Todd Martens

Additional reporting by Rong-Gong Lin II. Stay tuned to Pop & Hiss and L.A. Now for further developments.

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Electric Daisy Carnival draws 185,000 for electronic music and good vibes

More than 100 taken to hospitals during Electric Daisy Carnival

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Kaskade spins with electronica into the mainstream

Top photo: The crowd at Electric Daisy 2010. Credit: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times.Bottom photo: Shot of last year's Electric Daisy Carnival. Credit: Drew Ressler / MSO

Comments

[bbossin]

Is this a joke. 1 girl died at an event that had over 150,000 attendees. That girl was taking drugs which were illegal, and not provided by the promoter.

In that same time there were multiple murders in my neighborhood, as well 2 traffic related deaths that I saw. How many assaults? Are you gonna close Hollywood?

How many sports riot have we had? Yet now you are gonna ban kids dancing?

[Shilo Urban]

We cannot have people dancing to machine-like music. This must be stopped immediately. Think of teh childrenz.

Raves and truly all musical events where people are happy and dancing make me very uncomfortable. Why can't those damn colorful hippie-looking youngsters get drunk and watch TV like the rest of the nation?

[Jerry Lewis]

Glad to see the government is getting involved after there were problems. Create a 10% Rave tax to cover these new save the world employees the county so desperately needs.

[eagle rock resident]

What's the government is good at is being stupid and doing lots of hand-wringing while they miss the obvious. The response here to create a "task force" is typical.

Why don't they stop enabling raves themselves for starters? The county does not have to provide the site for the event for which taking drugs is a major part of the activity. Where do these supervisors reside that they miss these things? With al the staff they have, you would think someone would clue them in.

The 15 year old girl died. How many under-age-16 were attending? Parents need to at least try to know what their children are doing. Too often, they don't like to "parent" and leave the choice to their children for too many things. The girl might have gone to this event anyway, but parents generally can't put all the blame on everyone else when things turn out bad.

Nothing will bring this girl back, but parents need to handle things themselves. Politicians have no superior intelligence and have varying degrees of corruption as their pattern. Do you trust them more than yourself?

The County, Zev, needs to stop looking to collect a buck and think about the impact in real life terms, that the county's blind money-grab creates. No task force needed- or is this generating another job to pals of the politicians.
The county supervisors can't claim they didn't know all this unless they want to also admit they are out of touch with reality. But that's probably the case. The only reality they know is being re-elected to office and catering to groups that give them campaign money and freebies.

[youfail]

oh yes, please create a task force to administer the law to these dangerous events. these raves are obviously a danger to the public with over 100,000 people attending with relatively few injuries, because obviously nothing bad ever happens in other huge events.

Just take the Lakers games for example.

[Thomas Lee]

So one girl died due to illegal drug use. How many drunk drivers were cited in the city that day?

[mblakely]

Simple solution raves are 21+ events. My guess is most of these injuries were kids younger than 18. This IS a maturity issue, and young kids need not be experimenting and raving at ages younger than 21.

[Haley]

the way i look at it is different then the majority of people on here. teenagers dont always make the smartest choices, but the key word is TEENAGERS. their going to try drugs, drink, smoke. would u rather have all these kids spread out around town? that would cause more then 1 death. how much money do RAVES cost? my ticket was $75. i wouldnt mind paying more if the government taxed it. this is a night where we can just dance and listen to the music. dont hate on people that can handle themselves.

[john handcock]

Old people Fail, so hard...

[RR]

As many of you have pointed out colorfully, I will state straight-forward:

Many people out there who neither understand nor have ever experienced anything like this who are also predisposed to a holier-than-thou attitude driven by their own fears an vast insecurities are having a field day with this, as they feel it is a justification for their misplaced and neurotic hatreds. If they really had any humanity or care for their fellow man as they portray, they would seek to understand more as well as compromise for the good of all. I see nothing of this from the other side.
The politicians, news outlets, and other ghouls are preying on this instead of actually seeking answers.
Am I hitting it close to the mark?
Bottom line, if you need to address the reason people go to raves and then address the reason why raves are dangerous. This is the only way to make any progress when the crowd some seek to silence is too large and loud to be quelled. No answers here for now, but I do have my own theories--but no use coming from here.
Good luck to us all, take care, and PLURR.

[Freedom or Death]

First of all I’d like to break down some numbers. Let’s round up and say that 300 people were injured in the event out of 186,000. That’s comes out to 0.0016%. That’s barely a thousandth of one percent. I’m pretty sure that more people get injured in traffic accidents in LA everyday. Why not use the money to alleviate something that pisses everyone off. Use it to make more efficient highways.

Events like Electric Daisy Carnival are a necessary escape that my generation needs once in a while to keep sane. Our society is so driven by dollars and power and status. In these types of events, none of that matters! (We do of course have to pay for the admission costs and put up the price gauging for water/food etc.) Nonetheless, the event is about peace, love, unity, and respect. This is our Woodstock. This is our disco. This is our cup of tea. The amounts of people that died or were injured at things in the past such as Woodstock were astronomically higher. As stated in previous posts people get injured at most any kind of large gathering, such as a sporting event.

Sensationalist news continuously gets things twisted with raves. They know if they point out that people got injured and peop- oh wait, ONE PERSON died, they will receive much more attention for their articles. It’s not my goal to be insensitive about the girl that died. It is very unfortunate and sad that these things happen. Then again, the truth of the matter is that hundreds to thousands of people sure enough overdosed at their home or at a party somewhere on that same day.

If they shut down the massive events such as EDC there will always be underground events where there’s little to no supervision. In these scenarios it’s more likely that over doses or injuries may occur.
Keep massives alive!
Power to the PLUR!

[whenhen]

Here's an idea, check IDs to ensure that only above 16s are allowed in. If a 15 year old sneaks in with a fake, EDC would not be liable. Additionally, how is the rave supposed to police for ecstasy? It's taken in pill form. Are the security guards supposed to search through every nook and cranny of a person when they enter, even though there's 184,000 people behind them? Finally, I'd say the festival went over astonishingly well. One death because a girl took to much E? A few hundred hospitalizations (for mostly minor things like dehydration). I feel the deepest sympathy for the family, but going after a rave because your daughter chose to be irresponsible is placing the blame away from where it should be.

[nicko]

LA Times still seems to be on a crusade against electronic music. like flylo said, you'll never win.

[bradley grab]

I just attended the audiotistic rave last night, there were 25,000 people there, they inforced the 18 and older policy. it was kind of successful. nobody died that night, but people were dropping like flies from overdose. I am a hardcore raver, i love the events, but the more people i see overdose, the less i want 2 go 2 the events. Be responsible people!!!!!!! know your limits druggies.

[Kelsie 'Catalyst']

Big massive events such as EDC shouldn't happen because people will get hurt. You put that many people into one place, something's bound to happen and people are bound to get hurt. I do not attend massives. I like much smaller raves better. Ones where I know almost every person in the room.

I will stand up for what I believe in. Raving is a way of life for a lot of ravers such as myself. I still have my "normal" life, but raving is what I do to see friends, hang out, and have a great time. If someone's going to try and take that away from us, we're gonna fight it. We do what we love... and we love raving!