07.07
Rave Party Task Force Source: mdverde @ flickr.com
So after all the happenings at EDC a week ago, including the death of a 15 year old, LA County has come out with a temporary plan of action: a “Rave Party Task Force”, spearheaded by County Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Don Knabe. If you want to read the official proposal that was signed, click here (it’s only 2 pages long).
This comes right on the feet of the very surprising and alarming news that the girl who died may have taken some MDMA. The toxicology reports are still being compiled but I don’t doubt that some sort of drug was involved. MDMA does not surprise me, but it does slightly surprise me that she may have drank from a water bottle with some other stuff in there. It never ceases to amaze me just how large an amount of chemicals people will put in their body to escape reality.
But that’s beside the point; back to the task force. I have been posting on the tranceaddict boards here and there (where there is a lot of hate for Insomniac, which I think is undeserved) trying to get my message across but a lot of people seem to be missing the point. In my opinion, the main MAIN huge in your face problem is all the underage kids who went to the event. Now I know that perhaps Insomniac wants to let all ages come to these events so they can make more money and so kids can have more fun. But I say boo-hoo.
I still think all of the stage-rushing, irresponsibility with drugs, and inability to take care of friends largely rests on the younger crowd. Yes there are occasional issues with the older crowd as well, but that’s on them. When a 23 year old dies of a drug overdose (like what happened in San Francisco in May), that’s one thing. It was his decision to come to the event, not act responsibly, and thus face the consequences. People overdose in their homes all the time. It’s unfortunate that someone chose to do so at a rave but those are the facts – people take too many drugs for various reasons and die.
It’s different, however, when a 15 year old does it. It’s different because kids that young are scientifically known to not have fully developed decision making skills. That’s why they can’t drive, buy alcohol, see rated R movies, etc. Those limitations are put in place for a reason, not due to some arbitrary sorting hat decision. So when a 15 year old dies of a drug overdose there is, I agree, a huge problem there. Why was she allowed to go and why was she in an environment where something like this happened?
Now is the solution having a “task force” investigate the medical issues behind these “rave parties”? Which. by the way, are vaguely defined as long-lasting musical events, but I’m sure they will know who to target. I’m not so sure. Older people should be responsible for educating themselves. Otherwise, I saw plenty of medical staff, water available everywhere for a decent price (at a musical event anyway), food, shade, places to sit, etc. There is no reason for someone to get dehydrated or heat stroke or any of those things, unless of course they are at the main stage and refuse to go to the bathroom.
Although it would be lovely if the county came up with recommendations such as having drug testing stations available (to check purity content) and things like that, I am more afraid that their advice will be “shut it down, everyone’s on drugs”. The problem is that this will just move the events to another county, such as San Bernardino, where the same problems will exist and more (such as people driving all the way over there from LA and back in one night).
So my hope is that
1) The task force is concerned, like the motion says, with safety at events and not ending them completely
and more importantly
2) Insomniac and other promoters (especially GoVentures who, for example, moved the main stage to the outside at MM, preventing the overcrowded oven inside the Sports Arena) address the issues with age, overcrowding, and bathroom access themselves, similar to what I recommended in my previous post regarding the future of EDC. Preventing bad news from resulting from these events will help them flourish and continue.
Now let’s all calm down and listen to some sets from EDC 2010. Might I recommend Armin and Swedish House Mafia to start?
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