# City cancels final day of Electric Zoo dance music festival **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 1, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-cancels-final-day-of-electric-zoo-dance-music-festival/667759 "2013-09-01T21:23:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-cancels-final-day-of-electric-zoo-dance-music-festival/667759/1 "2013-09-01T21:23:21Z")
They cancel an entire music festival because of a few drug overdoses and a couple deaths? The OD’s at Woodstock didn’t stop the music. I pretty much assumed any music festival with 100,000 people is going to have some OD’s and sadly a few deaths. People bring their drug use with them wherever they go. Burning Man has 61,000 this weekend and I’d strongly suspect drugs are being consumed by many of those people. I can’t imagine a drug free music festival. The nanny state strikes again. > **[City cancels final day of Electric Zoo dance music festival after deaths of...](https://www.nydailynews.com/2013/09/02/city-cancels-final-day-of-electric-zoo-dance-music-festival-after-deaths-of-two-concertgoers-possible-sexual-assault/)** > > The killer drug overdoses of two concertgoers and the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl prompted the city to abruptly cancel Sunday’s finale of the Electric Zoo music festival on Randalls … > [@](#): > > At least four more festival attendees are being treated for apparent overdoses in intensive care units at local hospitals, officials said. > > “The city recommended cancellation and the event promoters have agreed,” NYPD officials and Mayor Bloomberg’s office said in a joint statement. > > “The Electric Zoo organizers have worked with city officials to reduce health risks at this event, but in view of these occurrences, the safest course is to cancel the remaining day of the event.” > > Festival leaders also posted a statement on their website: “The founders of Electric Zoo send our deepest condolences to the families of the two people who passed away this weekend. Because there is nothing more important to us than our patrons, we have decided in consultation with the New York City Parks Department that there will be no show today.” > > The festival attracted over 100,000 people last year, organizers said. Tickets to Sunday’s shows cost $179. > > Event staff was turning people away Sunday morning as news of the sudden cancellation spread. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-cancels-final-day-of-electric-zoo-dance-music-festival/667759/2 "2013-09-01T21:46:20Z")
Anybody familiar with this years festival? How was this music this year? Not my generation but I can appreciate seeing others rocking out and having a good time. I’d check out Burning Man if I lived closer. Just to enjoy the scene and see others having fun. I’d need earplugs but thats ok too. I wore them at Ozzfest back in the late 90’s. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-cancels-final-day-of-electric-zoo-dance-music-festival/667759/3 "2013-09-01T23:04:21Z")
For comparison, Bonnaroo has fewer people (generally around 75k), but they’re staying on-site the whole time for a full four days, and they average one death a year. I think Coachella has an even better record than that. So two deaths in two days is a lot by that metric. I think the difference is just that this fest is all dance music, and MDMA is a huge part of that culture. It’s also a genre that’s booming, which means a lot of new people to the scene and a lot more people being stupid. I can see their point with cancelling it, but it does kind of suck. I wonder if they would have cancelled it if the two deaths had been alcohol related. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-cancels-final-day-of-electric-zoo-dance-music-festival/667759/4 "2013-09-02T05:15:28Z")
Also for comparison, the Electric Daisy Carnival (held here in Las Vegas at the start of summer) this year sold all 345,000 tickets to its 3 day event and had 49 felony arrests, 600 calls for medical help and zero deaths. That’s 115,000 people per day and zero deaths. [Cite](http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23529023/electric-daisy-carnival-wraps-up-las-vegas?). ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-cancels-final-day-of-electric-zoo-dance-music-festival/667759/5 "2013-09-02T07:29:27Z")
Emergency aid services at the festival can make all the difference. 600 calls and no deaths says a lot about the quality of care and fast response. Make it clear to everyone that they should rush friends to emergency aid if there’s any concern about their condition. They should feel safe seeking help and not worry about getting busted for drugs at the aid station. Medical care is more important then some cop making a drug bust.