Insomniac Events Founder Pasquale Rotella has urged L.A. County authorities not to ban EDM events and festivals in the area. In an Instagram post, he outlined his reasons saying that it would be a mistake to send a cultural revolution back "into the unregulated underground" that the government banished it to back in the 1990s and early 2000s, where the risks were much higher than they are today.
The post comes as a response comes as authorities are facing pressure to take hard line action against festivals, notably electronic music festivals on L.A. county grounds, after two teenage girls died from suspected overdoses at the recent HARD Summer in Pomona, CA
Hearings have been held on the matter and various officials weighing on the matter, ranging from sheriffs to congressmen to ER doctors who are all have varying opinions on what to do about drugs and music festivals.
Pasquale has his own as "someone" who has been industry for more than two decades. In the post, he pays his respects to the lost women. Rotella insists that his firm does not condone drug use, noting that EDM or even festivals are not at fault here, pointing out that he lost five friends to overdoses when he was younger, and not at music events.
The solution wouldn't be to band them all together and kill a growing culture, which offers a sense of community for thousands, but rather "creating a national dialogue that educates out youth and encourages them to be accountable for their choices—especially when it comes to drugs."
Driving EDM events underground would be reminiscent of when the 2003 Rave Act was enacted as part of the Amber Alert bill, which gave the government extra powers to shut down events and penalize promoters if officials find evidence of drug use.
Read the full post below.