This year’s Defqon.1 Austrailia festival has seen an attendee pass. Photo: Twitter: @defqon1AU

It’s happening again. Like clockwork. With devastating news coming from the Electric Zoo festival in New York that a pair of young adults have passed due to drug use, the public media hammer is unleashing its might on EDM culture — once again.

Reports stated that two young adults, Oliva Rotondo, 20, and Jeffrey Russ, 23, who were attending the New York electronic dance music festival, passed with cause of death reportedly induced by drugs. In fact, Olivia reportedly told emergency responders that she took six hits of ecstasy before seizing, which eventually resulted in her death.

In light of these reports, the party seized on the third and final day of the biggest festival in the Northeast due to the deaths. News of the passings at the relatively new Electric Zoo (expanding rapidly with last year’s edition attracting more than 110,000) has many stirred reactions; predictably, many are calling for the festival’s immediate demise.

I’ve written about drugs in EDM culture before. I believe the dichotomy I argued still stands; that there is a choice the attendees, organizers, and municipalities are going to have to make when putting on these events: maintain a zero-tolerance approach of drug use in these mass events (even Coachella, Lollapalooza, etc.) that tends to lead to unsafe use, thus results in more tragedies; or instead provide a more tolerant, accepting measures to keep everyone safe. Q-dance, the event organizers who are behind international hardstyle mega-festivals like Defqon.1 and Qlimax , have taken a step towards the latter attitude by releasing an “Advisory for the fans”:

“To all our guests and friends in the music festival community: We want you to dance and play, enjoy the music and the experience. But please take care of yourselves and each other.”

They go into even further specifics to educate on the harms of, for lack of a better term, partying too hard:

“Such low levels of electrolytes, especially salt, can lead to brain swelling, seizures, heart problems and even death … Some drugs like MDMA (Molly, ecstasy) can make the low electrolyte level worse and increase your chances of harm.”

And finally, on a lasting note:

“Q-dance does not endorse or condone their use, but if you or someone around you needs help and has taken something that you are concerned about, it is important that you tell our staff. We are here to help and never judge … Please remember that Q-dance considers all of our music fans as guests at our events, and will always do everything we can to provide an enjoyable and safe experience. Never hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or concerns you may have at our events.”

But as reflected in my previous piece, not everyone agrees with this latter approach and adhere to the former, banning the events entirely. Geoffrey Croft, president of the New York City Park Advocates says that “These events are out of control, and they shouldn’t be happening on park property.” East Harlem Councilwoman and chairwoman of the Council’s parks committee Melissa Mark-Viverito is aligned with a similar sentiment that “Randall’s Island [location of Electric Zoo] is routinely taken over by these private events where the benefit to the city and to the public is often unclear, and oversight is limited.”

The campaign machine to stop these events are being propelled by major news outlets.

After news that Insomniac’s Beyond Wonderland is moving outside the San Bernardino-proper city limits to San Bernardino County, the L.A. Times chose to highlight backlash that was in terms minimal. Even after the new location’s County Board of Supervisors democratically approved a relocation, L.A. Times still chose to spin negative light on the manner:

“Supervisor Janice Rutherford, who voted against the raves and said many Devore residents would not welcome them. ‘They are just a horrible public safety concern, certainly for the young people who attend,’ she said. ‘It’s not fair to just transfer the impact.’”

What’s even more alarming is that her trepidation for the safety concern is ironically sourced from the L.A. Times’ previous coverage: “Rutherford said she was troubled by a Los Angeles Times article about raves…”

The New York Post tabloid printed on a headline that “Electric Zoo founder once GM’d infamous Chelsea hotspot known for ODs.” There will be more blood. I’m sure of it.

But response from the mainstream press isn’t all that surprise, really. Fear and alarm grabs attention. It’s hard to fault them. But what’s alarming is a piece I read on Vibe.com, which has criticized EDM fans for being selfish and inconsiderate towards the victims.

“When news broke that the city closed the final day of the festival in response to the deaths, the reaction by many EDM fans on social media was basically: Your death ruined my party.’ … Aside from the growing body count, one of the most distressing things about rave culture lately has been watching it cannibalize itself. From fragmenting into sub- genre tribes that beef incessantly, to throwing DJs off decks, and dancing on the graves of dead ravers, the “We” in DJ culture seems to have been flipped on its head into ‘Me’. Where is the unity? Where is the respect.”

First, let me preface by saying Vibe — which is historically a hip-hop magazine — has expanded its EDM coverage tenfold in order to cash in on the capital of the EDM bubble; and as I read the piece, I can’t help but think this is another account of an outsider looking in. The writer bases a critique on anecdotal evidence with, I believe, bias concepts preconditioning his outlook to begin with (before you think I’m against any sort of EDM critique, I do embrace good criticism). But to my point without getting too into philosophical epistemology, it’s difficult to take an editorial like this seriously — but the scary thing is we have to. These misunderstandings are what generate and reinforce stereotypes and stigmas. No matter how frustrating, proponents of EDM and its culture must be open to debate because the loudest voice tends to win, no matter how misinformed that voice is.

However, I do see some light at the end of the tunnel. No matter how illegitimate and anarchistic people think these festivals are, there are, and need to be some defenders in the public eye who recognize the drug use as drug problem, not an EDM one. Even regulation-happy NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg considers Electric Zoo organizers as helpful and professional.

“There’s something that he was involved with about a dozen years ago, but we’ve been working with this promoter, organizer, for the past five years and they have a stellar record. I can tell you that when we brought it to their attention, we didn’t need to — they knew they had to put in as good procedures as we could think of and have been nothing but cooperative, and I have nothing but good things to say about them.”

Only time will tell which opinion and decision the populace will take on festivals and raves. But if you take a flashlight to the past, particularly to the 90s club/rave scene, it doesn’t fare well for festival-goers. So it is up to us, the “ravers” (for a severe lack of a better term), to give our own voice and refocus on the real problems that we know aren’t inherent in EDM culture, but in our country’s culture as a whole.

Residing in Las Vegas, I have been listening to EDM since the Eurodance craze of the 90s. I utilize my love for deep, philosophical thought and writing to cover the ever-expanding genre for ElectroJams. Question, concerns, or bitching can be directed to my Twitter account @yalepoloclub. I always love a good conversation. electrojams.com