Following the death of two female festival attendees at Los Angeles’ HARD Summer festival, a temporary ban on outdoor, public property held, festivals has been called for.
The city of Los Angeles has held a task force on drug related incidents of this nature after the death of a teenage girl at the 2010 edition of Electric Daisy Carnival. At the time, EDC was a Los Angeles institution, however since being forced to its new Las Vegas home. The task force recommended a slew of overdose preventative measures added security, intense entry search, clear passageways for medical personnel, and free water supply. As it was unclear whether HARD followed the recommendations, as well as being held on state-owned property, a unanimous decision by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors resulted, opening a study into the effectiveness of a festival ban on overdose related incidents.
Supervisor Hilda Solis stated, “As we move forward, more measures need to be considered to create a safe environment for all patrons and a zero tolerance for illicit drugs”. These measures will be presented to the board in two weeks, which will include new steps to ensure safety protection and improve health.
In the meantime, Holis has called for an all out ban on state-owned property held events, albeit seemingly temporary, where an end date has not been definitely given. HARD’s next event will be September 2nd at the same venue, to which Holis has said, “…they are just asking for a report. There is no ban.”
This isn’t the first time HARD has had its issues with drug-related deaths on their publicly owned land. Last year a 19 year old died from acute intoxication of MDMA, a similar scenario to this year’s incident.
So, will Los Angeles ban festival events for the long term? It seems unlikely, however it is almost certain that highly restrictive new measures will be imposed, as well as a much stricter permitee process. Obviously, issues of safety are of primary concern, as are issues of over-saturation, however it remains to be seen if such measures will result in restrictive, uncomfortable evnvironments at events only possible by those with the financial means to do so. Watch this space for more, and in the meantime you can check out the news report out of Fox LA below for more information.
Source: LA Times
