Citing increased security requirements, HARD L.A. canceled [UPDATED]*

In the wake of a teenager's death at the Electric Daisy Carnival last month, the electronic-centric HARD L.A. concert at downtown's Los Angeles State Historic Park has been canceled due to security concerns.

James Valdez, a state park ranger and the lead coordinator for events in the Los Angeles sector who was overseeing Hard L.A., confirmed that the July 17 date is no longer happening. Valdez said the Aug. 7 Hard event, also set for the park, was still planned as of this morning. “From what I hear, yes,” Valdez said when asked if the Aug. 7 was scheduled to go off.

Valdez said he received an e-mail from Gary Richards, the festival's promoter, that stated the July 17 date was “postponed,” but he had no further information.

Documents from sources connected to a number of the acts scheduled to perform at the July 17 concert indicate that the promoters behind HARD L.A. have canceled the show in light of the new scrutiny and logistics demanded of large-scale electronic music concerts in Los Angeles.

The annual festival this year was to feature acts including M.I.A., Die Antwoord, Flying Lotus, Sleigh Bells and others.

Richards has not returned messages for comment. Biz3, HARD L.A.'s publicity team, has declined to comment.

The documents indicate that the festival will not be rescheduled, but that the New York installment on July 24 has not been affected. The cancellation comes as rumors of poor advance ticket sales have dogged the festival in recent days.

UPDATED 2:32 P.M.: Fresh Squeezed, another L.A. electronic music festival planned for the City of Industry, was canceled after difficulties securing a location and permits in light of the new public scrutiny.

The Hard L.A. cancellation comes after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted last week to establish a task force to examine and "enhance rave safety.” The motion to establish the task force followed a prior call by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to establish a rave moratorium, and the Coliseum had already announced a temporary ban on new contracts with rave operators as they consider whether to allow another such event.

A spokesman for Yaroslavsky’s office said he was unaware that Hard L.A. had been canceled.

“Zev has never said anything about rave-type events at any other venue other than the Coliseum,” the spokesman said. Calls were deferred to the mayor’s office, who have not yet responded to requests for comment.

Beyond Hard, the summer's other big electronica event, the Love Festival, is scheduled to take place at 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 and discuss the Love Festival’s fate.

UPDATED 2:49 P.M.: Biz 3, the publicist for Hard L.A., has just released the following statement:

Due to events beyond our control, HARD LA M.I.A. July 17 has been cancelled.  
 
Thanks to the continued support of City of Los Angeles, LAPD, LAFD, and California State Parks HARD SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL at the Los Angeles State Historic Park on August 7th 2010 featuring Soulwax, Crystal Castles, Major Lazer, Erol Alkan, Diplo, Digitalism and more will continue as scheduled.
 
Tickets for HARD LA M.I.A. are automatically valid for the HARD SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL. HARD will offer refund instructions July 13th via HARDFEST.com
  
HARD NYC M.I.A. in New York July 24 at Governors Island is on as scheduled. 

UPDATED 4:00 P.M.: Gary Richards, Hard L.A.'s promoter, said in a phone interview that "We’ve been working with the city for months and all our security plans were approved. The city was pleased with our plan. The LAPD had asked for some more cops, but most of this was the exact same plan as before. We just thought it would be better to put both events together. This didn’t have anything to do with security issues.”

When asked if slower-than-expected ticket sales affected the cancellation, Richards said "I'd rather not comment on that."

*Editor's note: Based on the above 4 p.m. update, we have changed the headline of this post. The original headline read: "Citing security concerns, Hard L.A. canceled."

- August Brown & Todd Martens

M.I.A. photo by Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Rigz]

I'm amazed by the media.
Honestly I'm not a big follower of the rave/scene/techno
but I do listen to it and I enjoy it..

but one of the things that really sucks is that the media is just making this girls death the biggest thing in the world. I mean why doesn't the media state on how many pills this girl had to take for her to die at this type of event.

this accident could of happened at any other venue/concert/sports event
now your telling me that if an underage teen died at hip hop concert or something like the laker parade their going to cancel everything..
I THINK NOT!!

I'm not just talking hiphop but I'm also talking about any type of genre of music.. lets be realistic everybody knows that raves were all underground and now that it's finally making it's way to a whole new level and getting bigger and more recognition everyone is going to start canceling events left and right because a girl overdosed at EDC. I honestly don't understand the media and I'm very disgusted by it... how many times do they not have special news reports with some idiot reporter outside after a big concert saying all this positive bullshit about how great a concert was.. when over thousands of people had the same amount of fun at edc. yet because this lil girl who lied to her parents and media saying someone laced her water with x.. honestly
first of all if someone had laced her water she would of known it would of tasted like crap. I'm not to say anything about extacy because I've never tried it but I'm sure if u put it in water its not going to taste like lemonade...

anyway big heads up to all the promoters and all the electronic music lovers.
give it a month before the media finds something else to worry about besides raves.

lets not forget about the oil spill / illegal immigration issue in arizona.

[mr.trancis]

Way to twist the story. The girl DIDN'T die AT Electric Daisy Carnival.

She died because her parents DECIDED to take her off life support, after she had major complications of a drug overdose.

GET THE FACTS STRAIGHT PLEASE.

[Sad]

QUOTE "In the wake of a teenager's death at the Electric Daisy Carnival last month" I thought the media is supposed to bring you facts? LA Times and its boneheaded writers, editors and reporters need to realize that the teenager did NOT die at the Electric Daisy Carnival, the teenager was 15, yes 15! (parents had her under control? NOT!) especially after saying she snuck out of the house to attend the party in the first interview. c'mon MEDIA, get your heads out of your asses. Election year, the state of California in the crapper and in need of money and now the officials do this. It's no wonder why our state is in the toilet, ass backwards politicians running the show are seeing the same thing that they've done in their teens and early adult life coming back to bite them in the ass. I can bitch because I did vote. It's not getting any better here, all the politicians should get the boot and bring in some new hires, that actually are younger than the retirement age, dont need hearing aids, bi-focals, dont take geritol yet and dont need help to go to the toilet.

[Nick]

The funny thing is I grew up in the Punk Rock, and Hardcore scene while I went to electronic music festivals. There are more overdoses, deaths, and violence at any of those events which reach a higher percentage of people. The officials are a joke, and are trying to make this something it isn't. I've seen fence rushing, ambulances, and everything in a more serious scale... even at warped tour. So why don't we start canceling everything awesome because some dumb kid couldn't handle their drugs. By the way the chance of someone dying at EDC was a .000006 chance.

[Frank Stephens]

It makes a lot of sense to me why they would be shut down. It probably sucks for the people who attended the events, but that is the price sometimes.

[michele]

Uh...would you mind specifying which "documents" you are referring to, who these "sources" are, which "acts" they are connected to, and what the specific number of the acts actually is?