Nocturnal Wonderland this past weekend was the first major festival to take place since the cancellation of Electric Zoo’s final day. Before the kick off of Insomniac’s longest running festival, the company’s founder and CEO, Pasquale Rotella, did an interview with Rolling Stone and gave his perspective as a festival promoter on the media scrutiny of dance music and deaths at dance music events. With that scrutiny focused on Nocturnal as the next potential site of drug related deaths, Pasquale reiterated that those kinds of incidences are not exclusive to the dance music scene, and negative attention given to related events is unfair.
“Unfortunately, death at a music festival means national media attention. I think the general public thinks maybe this only happens at festivals, dance music events – that it doesn’t happen at college frat parties, house parties, sporting events or rock festivals because it’s not covered, basically. Dance music gets national interest. And sometimes, like EDC Downtown (Los Angeles), it gets international interest.”
“It’s the promoter’s responsibility to do everything possible to protect the attendees, and after you’ve covered all your bases and done everything you can do, it really comes down to people handling their own business, people being responsible for themselves,”
He goes on to state that as a festival producer, Insomniac does everything in their power to create a secure environment and will continue to improve methods. But, what’s most important is that he highlights the path of responsibility as one that travels both ways, and the promoter’s efforts must be met by personal responsibility of the attendees. Thankfully, Nocturnal Wonderland’s first appearance at the San Manuel Amphitheater was not marred by news of tragic death but praised for its fantastical production and music in an equally amazing, natural surrounding.
With TomorrowWorld in Chattahoochee Hills this weekend, mainstream media will be ready to pounce at the first sign of trouble. If you are attending, please remember to take care of yourself and watch out for your fellow ravers/ragers. As long as we do our part to remain responsible, festival/concert promoters can continue to provide us with musical weekend oases, and we can collectively start to undo dance music’s unfairly vilified reputation. Check out the EDMTune’s articles below for great information on how to prepare and protect yourself for this weekend.
Via – Rolling Stones