City Debates Safety of Electronic Dance Festivals

Electronic music festivals are notorious for illegal drug use by minors and young adults. Festivals like these are extremely hard to police due to the high volume of drugs that make it through security at every event. Many participants experiment with certain drugs for the first time, with little if any knowledge of the drugs ingredients. Every year a number of people overdose and/or lose their lives to designer drugs like Molly (MDMA).

The two deaths at this year's Electric Zoo electronic dance music festival in New York have officials are considering whether to allow the event to return to a city park next year. The two deaths caused Mayor Michael Bloomberg to cancel the last day of the festival this year.

Assistant Parks Commissioner Betsy Smith said that the city will deliberate to see whether it can safely host the festival, according to the Wall Street Journal. “I don’t know what the final decision will be,” she said. “It’s clearly a tragedy that these young people died at these events. We don’t want to encourage that in any way.”

The Electric Zoo festival organizers say that this year they provided extra security, water and reminders not to use drugs; they said that they will apply for a permit to hold the event again.

A city review will be conducted of the festival that could take months, Smith added. 

Related articles

• Electric Zoo Dance Music Festival Canceled After Two Deaths Related To MDMA (nydailynews.com)
• Electric Zoo music festival canceled after two deaths blamed on drugs (cnn.com)
• Dance Music Festival Takes Precautions Over Drugs (abcnews.go.com)