Following the deaths of two teenage concertgoers at HARD Summer earlier this month, Live Nation has agreed to cancel an upcoming HARD event, as well as scale back another and increase its safety precautions.
As County Supervisors consider a possible ban on electronic dance music events on county property, the Los Angeles Times reports concert promoter Live Nation has agreed to additional safety measures for future events. These include increased cooling stations, free water, and increased security and medical services onsite.
Meanwhile, the event HARD Presents … A Night at Fairplex with DVBBS, Juicy J, Destructo, AC Slater and more at the Fairplex sports facility in Pomona, Calif., that was scheduled for Sept. 10 has now been cancelled and tickets will be refunded. The two-day HARD Day of the Dead festival on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 has also been scaled down from 65,000 to 40,000 attendees per day.
A spokeswoman for the nonprofit Los Angeles County Fair Assn. told the LA Times, “Fairplex will continue to work with Live Nation, the Board of Supervisors and all public agencies to ensure the continued safety of all guests. We will work together to do everything we can.”
On Aug. 1, 19-year-old Katie Dix of Camarillo, Calif., and 18-year-old Tracy Nguyen of West Covina, Calif., died of drug overdoses while attending the Hard Summer music festival at the Fairplex.
Safety at EDM festivals has been a real concern of the county’s since a 15-year-old girl died from an Ecstasy overdose after attending the Electronic Daisy Carnival at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. That was followed with discussion of banning such events and resulted in the creation of task force to set safety guidelines for electronic music events.
Following Live Nation and the Fair Assn.’s most recent actions, the LA Timesreports still a ban remains is being considered by Los Angles County Supervisors.
