EDC no longer being held at Coliseum
The Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) rave will no longer be held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, according to the rave’s producer Insomniac, Inc.
On Thursday Insomniac Inc. announced that its trademark rave was postponed until late June and would be held this year in Las Vegas.
Insomniac, Inc. has held raves at the Coliseum and the adjacent Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena for the last 13 years.
Current Coliseum director, Rick Caruso, is pleased with Insomniac, Inc.’s decision to not stage EDC at the Coliseum.
The 2010 rave has been surrounded by controversy after a 15 year-old girl died of an ecstasy overdose and countless other attendees were hospitalized for alcohol and drug related problems.
Earlier this month The Los Angeles Times revealed that Patrick Lynch, former Coliseum director, had allowed Todd DeStefano, the former assistant general manager of events at the Coliseum, to work on the side as a promoter for Insomniac, Inc.
DeStefano was responsible for security and medical services at the 2010 EDC.
Lynch has since resigned as director and Todd DeStefano is currently under investigation by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office and the California Fair Political Practice Commission for criminal conflict of interest.
Regardless of whether USC had anything to do with the decision by Insomniac to move (I’m sure they were made aware of Nokia’s ignorant anti-rave email from a few weeks back), EDC has generated a ton of tax revenue and jobs over its 13 year run in socal and it seems rather odd for the city to be almost pushing away millions in tax revenue at a time like this.
Has nothing to do with USC. One of the commission members had an assistant who worked for Insomniac or another company that gave the event the OK last year. Once this was revealed there were a number of people who stepped down due to back deals and such.
Can’t remember all the details but there was a series of articles in the LA Times discussing the corruption in the process.
The Coliseum is a high-capacity entertainment venue. Exposition Park as a whole was designed as a fairgrounds to host large events with thousands of people (think the 1932 and 1984 Olympics) — it’s no accident it is called “exposition”. It does not make sense to me then why there is a problem with hosting EDC at the Coliseum. EDC is is a music festival, Exposition Park hosts festivals, so what’s really going on, Coliseum Commission?
If there is such concern from our community about health and safety at large events held in Exposition Park, then the Commission should address the larger systematic issue rather than pin the problems on a single event. Participating in any large event (whether EDC, Olympics opening ceremony, or a USC football game) is a risky activity. It is the job of both the event producer and the Coliseum Commission to ensure that participants at their events are aware of the risks, and also even to take steps to control risk. But neither party should be held accountable for the risks taken by the guests at events — it is the participant who is responsible. One might draw an analogy between participation in a large-scale festival and sky-diving: the activity is risky, but it is the participant who must make the decision about risking one’s safety or health to participate, accept full liability for oneself.
The events have systematic risk: it is in the nature of events hosted at Exposition Park and the Coliseum to be risky. If people in our community are not OK with guests in our community making choices about participating in risky activity, then those people should either leave this community or lobby to raze Exposition Park. I say the best thing to do is to educate participants and control risk, rather than disallow risky activity altogether.
Also, to the community: be sure to get out and vote in the Los Angeles City Elections, March 8th and May 17th. We are in the city’s 8th district. Vote for your City Council representatives!
Yes, raves bring money to the community, but at what cost? Protecting health and safety is most important.
I cannot believe Insomniac’s decision to move EDC, and I can only hope that President Nikias’ idiotic email denouncing raves did not reveal a deeper anti-EDM movement within the USC administration. I would be appalled if USC had anything to do with swaying Insomniac not to hold EDC at the Coliseum this year, and the Coliseum Commission should be ashamed of itself for allowing this move to happen. Taking millions of dollars out of the community is NOT what public officials should be doing in these trying economic times.