07.02
Source: Drew "Rukes" Ressler @insomniacevents.com
I promise this will be my last post about EDC.
But this does need to be said.
Most of you have kept up with the news this week about a girl who died at EDC. They haven’t officially stated the cause but I think we can all guess that it was most likely due to dehydration or some other issue related to ecstasy. Although you can’t easily overdose from ecstasy (it’s like overdosing from marijuana – you have to take a TON), you can die if you don’t drink water or have heart or kidney complications, etc.
Long story short, a 15 year old girl died and now everyone is trying to figure out what is going to happen next. This triggered other things coming up:
1. The police (lapd) said they had warned about the drug culture of the rave beforehand. I’m not sure what they were trying to accomplish by publicizing this – it’s not like they canceled it. Maybe just trying to wash their hands clean of responsibility?
2. ER doctors called for an end to raves after hospitalizing over 120 people over the weekend. They said the hospitals are under the same state as if there was a catastrophe (such as a train crash) during the weekend. That’s pretty crazy. I did see a bunch of wambulances at the event but I didn’t know the number was that high.
3. LA officials prompted the Coliseum to temporarily ban all raves which, essentially, means EDC and EDC only since that is the only event held there. I’m assuming the other events at the Expo grounds and Sports Arena such as the Love Festival and Monster Massive won’t be affected. That is funny because in my opinion GoVentures is much more irresponsible than Insomniac when it comes to massive events. They probably just do a better job at covering it up, or have gotten lucky by avoiding a death of a 15 year old directly linked to the event… however they did have a death at Together As One but that weren’t as publicized because it was way after the fact and probably not a 15 year old. I repeat, a 15 year old died at EDC. Ridiculous.
Ok so all this stuff happened and I’m sitting here on a Friday afternoon trying to come up with a solution and an answer.
What does it all mean and what should we do next?
What it all means - that’s right, I have the answer to life’s questions right here. Well I want to address all the people who want to cancel or ban raves and all the people who don’t want to do it based on “they will just do it somewhere less safe”. I think both sides are right in some aspect.
If they ban EDC, for example, at the Coliseum, and even ban a couple of other events, they’re not going to stop anything. They are just going to transfer the problem somewhere else. EDC had approximately 200,000 people over the entire weekend (according to police estimates. I have reason to believe that Insomniac and GoVentures have a lot of motive to deflate their numbers so it seems like everything was under capacity and under control. In reality I bet attendance is always higher than what they say.). Are those 200,000 people, who each spent on average over 70$ a ticket, just going to become dormant and not attend events anymore? Electronic music is at an all time high in terms of popularity and diversity. The events will continue to happen, and will continue growing. I don’t think banning a couple will solve anything at all. They tried to do that in the late 90′s and look, the scene came back even stronger.
Now the other side is that I don’t think everyone will just do it somewhere else if EDC is banned or altered in some way and that brings me to my next point:
What we should do next – I must say that urb.com did a great article on six things EDC could improve next time. The following will be a summary of their suggestions with my additions which can be found in the comments section of the linked article.
1. RAISE THE AGE LIMIT
Keeping high school kids out won’t mean they will just go somewhere else. There is nowhere else they can go where they can find hundreds of thousands of people in the sun dancing to music with no access to a bathroom. Kids don’t make good decisions 100% of the time – that’s why we have a driving age, voting age, etc. It’s scientifically proven that their brains aren’t done developing yet. When a 15 year old girl takes narcotics around so many people, there is absolutely no guarantee that she will do what’s right. So I’m sorry kids, but you’re going to have to wait till you’re older to go to a bigass rave. In the meantime, if you MUST try drugs, try them at home around your friends where it’s safe, there’s water, there’s a bathroom, there’s an air conditioner, etc.
I’m not sure if I want the age limit to be 18 or 21… what do you guys think? I’m leaning towards 18. If a kid has a fake, it’s going to be 21+ anyway.
1B. CHECK ID
I’ve been to 18+ insomniac events before where my ID was not checked. I was 21 but it’s not like I was obviously good to go. Check EVERYONE’S ID, airport style. It will make the line a little longer but if you know where to go, you should be fine.
2. BATHROOMS ON THE MAIN FLOOR
This was pretty obvious in my Saturday EDC review but there NEED to be bathrooms on the main floor of the Coliseum. Having to go all the way out surely deterred people from going. And that deterred people from drinking water. And that deterred people from being safe. That’s what causes problems.
3. CONTROL THE MAIN FLOOR
Either have special main floor only tickets (capped at a certain number) or VIP only or something. People must be allowed to leave and come back. See number 2.
4. HIGHER FENCES AND SECURITY
URB brought this up – sad but true. It must be done due to irresponsible people who can’t be adults. This year, people were able to scale the fences and storm the side entrances, resulting in the music being stopped, people getting trampled, etc. Raise those fences and put barbed wire on them, and put gates or more guards at each entrance. Give people no reason or method to cheating their way down there. We don’t want to bring Lil’ Jon back again do we? (By the way apparently some people found him annoying. I thought it was kinda cool.)
5. NO VENDOR BOOTHS AGAIN
Good call EDC. Do that again. The place looked way more music oriented instead of being a sea of glowsticks and drugged-out people not knowing who’s behind the decks. I’m not super-down with rave culture, to be honest, and these big festivals should be about the music. You want to have a rave? Go have one in a warehouse in San Bernardino with some crazy ass DJs and plenty of glow-sticks. If world class talent is coming to LA, don’t spoil it by sitting in the middle of the dancefloor with your face mask and strobe light.
I do wish I could have bought some gum though… can we get gum?
Final Thoughts
I honestly thought EDC was really fun this year and am disappointed by how many irresponsible people came to the event. Just SO many people abusing substances and doing stupid shit. I guess it’s the American way to go all out and binge but this was just too much. If people partied responsibly I wouldn’t be typing this post. C’mon people, just enjoy the music! I hope we can keep having these events. Insomniac shouldn’t have to babysit us. They did a good job.
After all… don’t we want to have moments like this again?
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