Mayor Eric Garcetti said today he remains supportive of bringing more electronic dance music concerts back to Los Angeles, despite Los Angeles County considering a potential temporary ban on these types of concerts.
Garcetti has stated in the past that the city should lift a ban on electronic dance music concerts, often referred to as raves or EDM concerts, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Garcetti said today the deaths of two women, apparently due to drug overdoses, this past weekend at the Hard Summer music festival at the Pomona fairgrounds was not caused by the type of music they were listening to, but was a matter of how the concert was managed.
“I think it’s bad management. I think people need to manage concerts well,” he said. “So I’m very sympathetic to (Los Angeles County) supervisors who are making sure they get to the bottom of what happened in this tragedy.”
Referring to his past support of allowing these concerts again at the Coliseum, Garcetti said he “thought a lifetime ban in a town” where electronic music often originates and is “exported to the world is kind of silly.”
There are now fewer raves in Los Angeles after a series of drug-related problems at the Coliseum, most notably at the Electric Daisy Carnival, which has since moved to Las Vegas. Similar events, however, are still held outside the city and draw big crowds.
The city will host a two-day music festival Aug. 22-23 headlined by Frank Ocean and Morrissey. The FYF Fest will feature dozens of bands at Exposition Park and Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
The women who died in this past weekend’s concert was identified this week as 18-year-old Tracy Nguyen of West Covina and 19-year-old Katie Dix of Camarillo, according to the coroner’s office.
Autopsies on both women were pending, according to the coroner’s office.
The two deaths have sparked new debate about whether authorities can do more to reduce drug-related problems at raves.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted this week to look into banning raves on county property while examining security and safety measures at dance music festivals following the deaths of Nguyen and Dix.
Supervisor Hilda Solis, who sought the measure, said that there should be “zero tolerance for illicit drugs,” and more needs to be done to educate the public about the downside of the euphoria-inducing drugs.
Hard Events, who hosts the Hard Summer concert, is owned by Live Nation.
Live Nation also owns Insomniac Events, which organizes the Electric Daisy Carnival.
