After a boisterous weekend, a dark cloud has befallen Electric Daisy Carnival following widespread reports of hospitalized attendees, perilous incidents of fence jumping, and the drug-related death of a 15-year-old girl. While local hospital staffers call for the end of “raves” in public venues and the CBS Evening News picks up the story, here are five ways we thing EDC can improve for the safety and enjoyment of everyone.
1. Assigned Seating
photo by Caesar Sebastian
Not necessarily exact seating assignments, but main floor wristbands sold first-come-first-served or handed out to early arrivals would control how many folks can safely be on the main field without the one-in/one-out system that encouraged fans to jump the fence when asked to wait, while keeping those on the floor trapped for fear of never getting back down if they left.
(How would you fix EDC?)
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DanceSafe would love to have helped manage a harm reduction booth/info center at EDC. What is needed are volunteers and coordination with security, medical, and operations staff.
EDC is awful and it has nothing to do with its organization. If they want to have a dance festival that isn’t full of 15-year-old e-tards maybe the should cater outside of that demographic. The double whammy of lowest-common-denominator Trance and Electro House seems to guarantee that’ll never happen, though.
I had never been to EDC until this year. I had high hopes (and expectations) but was thoroughly disappointed.
TICKETING
The ticketing agent (fla.vor.us) was so dysfunctional. AMEX replaced my credit card between the point of purchase and the event. As the card numbers did not match, I was asked to wait in a queue of nearly four-hundred people at the customer service desk – despite the fact that I had my credit card statements with the transaction, my e-receipts, my actual credit card in hand and my passport, drivers’ license and multiple pieces of identification. I ended up walking over to Ticketmaster and re-purchasing admission. Don’t worry, AMEX is nullifying the (fla.vor.us) transaction.
TOO YOUNG
While I know it’s actually a case of “I’m too old” I love the fact that all of Bicentennial Park (Miami) is licensed for Ultra. I can understand the argument that 18+ or 21+ would limit the number of tickets sold, but on the other hand (and this is only hypothetical) surely Insomniac’s insurance costs would plummet if they added such a restriction. Also, it would be nice – not to be confined to, a 100 sq metre area every time you want to grab a Heineken.
POOR CROWD MANAGEMENT
I didn’t even venture into Kinetic Field. The management of seating or just admittance was an atrocity. I really wanted to see Kaskade, SHM and Laidback Luke, but couldn’t be bothered to wait (yet again) to enter. Albeit, I am quite impatient. I tried to make the best of a poor situation and in fact found Circuit Grounds really decent. I mainly cordoned myself to that neck of the woods. When I went to leave (Circuit Grounds) I was told I had to walk all the way to the front entrance. I know, big injustice, but when I got there, it was one door for 90k people to exit from. All gates opened at the end of the night (or so I understand) but that just didn’t seem pragmatic or safe in my mind.
CONCLUSION
Interesting experience, one I won’t repeat. An expensive weekend (from Toronto) for an event with so many issues to iron out still. Trust me, I understand an undertaking of this size is not easy to manage, but really, for safety and the overall experience, there is A LOT of room for improvement. Should have spent the same money and gone to Global Gathering. Oh well, lesson learned.
I really liked EDC this year and would hate to see it end in the future, however I do agree with many of the points mentioned here to make it a better experience for everyone in the future. The point I feel should be followed in hard reduction. I remember about 10 or so years ago, Dancesafe used to be at many of the massives here in the San Francisco Bay Area where they both educated people about the dangers of doing drugs, and if a person so desires to do drugs, to make sure they were taking something they knew the contents of. Many times people buy stuff and don’t even know what’s in them. Although no drug is ever truly safe, at least knowing what you put in your body can help you to 1. decide if you should take it if you know it has been tainted and 2. if something does happen, you can tell medical personnel what you have taken so you can be treated properly.
[...] we should do next – I must say that urb.com did a great article on six things EDC could improve next time. The following will be a summary of their suggestions with my additions which can be found in the [...]
EDC improved SO much compared to years ago but yea there are some stuff they can work on more.
seriously, i cant believe they didnt have any restrooms on the main floor. maybe because they wanted all the people who wanted to piss to leave the main floor? i dunno but especially on saturday, the whole place was MARINATED IN PISS.
about the fencing, last year there was only a single fence. this year it was doubled and kids sitll jumped over it. if you havnt watched some videos on youtube of fence jumpers… its ridiculous some girl’s face is all bleeding and people getting trampled over… none sense they gotta put some electric volts on the fences.
and kids who OD and gets to the hospital.. come on now. play w/ responsibility… i some what agree that it should be 18+ but then again… i’d say 80% of edc customers are under age.
and dear insomniac… please stop using the SAME decorations at every rave you throw. like the christmas lighted walk way and those color lights that hang in the middle of nowhere. plus, i heard insomniac denied all private glowstick vendors this year and decided to sell on there own, but i didnt see any?
I agree with improving EDC rather than banning it. The fact is that banning raves on city owned land will just cause more ODs as warehouses are filled to the brim with sweaty people who are way too dehydrated. I agree with many of your points, especially the better fences and the age limit. I have attended many raves and seen many fence jumpers who disgust me with their wanton disregard for others’ safety. The last Insomniac Event (Beyond Wonderland) had barbed wired fences which greatly deterred gate jumpers (although a few still tried but were quickly caught by police while they tried to get their clothes off the spines). I’m not sure why they did not implement this at EDC other than possibly cost but the fact is that there is a massive amount of people attending and every year Insomniac underestimates the rowdiness of the drugged up fans. Employing more security is the responsibility of both Insomniac and USC because their security team is used and it is their property so that should be something for them to at least recommend. They should also require their guards to check IDs. While this would surely cause lines to take longer if there were more guards employed that would probably make up for the time lost. I would hate to see an event that has been running for so long disappear because of all of the stupid people who attend and are too high to care! Many people respect the venue whether they are on acid, weed, or ecstasy and they can control their urge to jump a fence of bum rush a stage. Making the event 18+ would make it much less crowded as this has become the new “thing” amongst high schoolers and once there is less people there will not be a large enough mob to rush the gates and overwhelm security. I really hope that the event organizers do the right thing because banning these events will only make it worse.
Whatever happened to the Lake Perris Fairgrounds where Juju 2000 and HSII 2001 was held at. That seemed like a pretty cool venue although I don’t know if it can contain such huge numbers either but i don’t even care to be honest. All I know is that the Coliseum is indeed epic but it shouldn’t come at the cost of someone’s well being. These events at the Exposition Center are lacking a real sense of community and vibe. I don’t care for the NOS Center either but it’s got to be held somewhere. Furthermore, I’ve been reading URB for over a decade now and they always bring the raw unbiased and informed news so it makes sense they’re only trying to help by suggesting some possible solutions to the problems Insomniac is encountering. Big up to Roker, SilenXio, and Old School LA! By the way, CSC sucks when dude’s are extorting ravers cash for drug busts! Fuck the police!
haha chino I C U dj kenny Buahah hell yea lets have this ish where juju beats was or that water park nocturnal was supposed to be at in 99