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After 20 Die At Rave In Germany, What's Next For Raves In L.A.?

Paresh Dave |
July 26, 2010 | 4:22 p.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

Fifteen people had to be transported to the hospital from Audiotistic 2010 on July 24. (Insomniac Events)
Fifteen people had to be transported to the hospital from Audiotistic 2010 on July 24. (Insomniac Events)
Audiotistic, the first electronic music festival in Southern California abiding by stricter safety rules, went off without a major incident on the same day that a stampede at a similar event in Germany left 20 people dead.

More than 500 people were also injured at Love Parade, an electronic music festival in Duisburg, Germany that had about 60 times more attendees than Audiotistic, according to some reports.

The extra attention put on the festivals, commonly known as raves, comes after a 15-year-old girl died after allegedly overdosing on drugs at the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) held at the L.A. Coliseum.

In response, the County of Los Angeles moved to create a task force led by the County Public Health Director to recommend ways to enhance safety at the events, which many attendees often enjoy by consuming illicit drugs such as Ecstasy. The task force is set to meet for the first time in August, though the County Public Health office was unable to provide specific details at this time.

Shortly after the girl's death, the Coliseum Commission issued a temporary ban on new contracts for raves at their two venues--the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and the L.A. Sports Arena.

At the Coliseum Commission's most recent meeting, Insomniac Events, which organized EDC and Audiotistic, agreed to institute an 18-year-old and up age restriction for raves. The minimum age limit was enforced with hand-held ID scanners at Audiotistic, which drew 25,000 people to the National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino.

Insomniac hired Symons Events to provide specialized medical care at Audiotistic and invited a consulting firm to analyze safety procedures at the event.

Insomniac issued a release Sunday morning to reporters who had previously contacted the company about the death at EDC.

“All the wonderful people who help make our events so special deserve not only the best entertainment, but the most comprehensive safety and security measures available and the fact that Audiotistic was successful in being both entertaining and safe shows that we are achieving that goal,” said Insomniac CEO Pasquale Rotella in the release.

However, the press release did not mention that 15 people were sent to the hospital from Audiotistic. That's about six people for every 10,000 in attendance, which is the same rate of hospitalization that resulted from EDC. And that's more than the three out of every 10,000 people who either died or were injured after Germany's Love Parade.

Twenty-one people were arrested for felony drug charges at Audiotistic—a clip of about eight out of every 10,000 participants whereas three out of every 10,000 participants were arrested for felony charges at EDC.

It's important to note that the tickets for Audiotistic were about $50, while entrance to the Love Parade was reportedly free.

An industrial town with a population of a half million authorized the Love Parade to have 250,000 people attend. Some reports suggest the event space could have safely handled 800,000 people. But when more than 1.4 million showed up and only one exit existed, which also served as the entrance, the situation grew out of hand. (The actual attendance figures for Love Parade are unknown, and estimates vary from 350,000 to 1.4 million.)

After the events in Germany, it will be important for L.A. County's task force to determine what an appropriate size for a rave events is.

Audiotistic with 25,000 people and extra security personnel was deemed “safe” by Insomniac, but EDC with 185,000 festival-goers across two days and security stretched thin was blasted for poor safety precautions.

With an age limit now in place, the size of the events will be next in line for consideration. Once the scope of an event is settled, it appears the next move will be implementing an education component at raves to increase awareness about the dangers of using drugs such as Ecstasy.

The Love Festival on Aug. 21 at the Sports Arena is next up in the public vetting process of rave safety.

To reach reporter Paresh Dave, click here.



 

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