Tragedy has struck the music community again. On Saturday night, June 13, a 19-year-old man was found dead outside of EDM event Spring Awakening Music Festival in Chicago. According to ABC 7 Chicago, police suspect the death to be drug related, but are waiting for the results of a toxicity screen. The three-day festival took place at Soldier Field, which is home to the Chicago Bears. Big-name DJs like Hardwell, Tiësto, Skrillex, Diplo, their duo Jack Ü, Eric Prydz, Zedd and others all performed at Spring Awakening.
Investigators say Steve Vangoth was found around 11:05 p.m. Saturday, just after the festival ended at 11 p.m., and taken to Mercy Hospital. He was officially pronounced dead at 9.52 a.m. Sunday. An autopsy was performed, but police are awaiting the results of further testing before declaring an official cause of death.
The weekend was tough for American festivals. In addition to the death outside of Spring Awakening, Bonnaroo saw a 47 year-old man die on its grounds from a heart-related issue. The man suffered from a pre-existing heart condition and died after behind transported to the hospital on Friday.
Spring Awakening has not had an issue with deaths during its festivals, though this did take place just outside of the event, however it is has been a black mark on EDM festivals as a whole. Events all across the country like Electric Zoo, Hard Summer and Mad Decent Block Party have all had attendees succumbed from drug-related deaths in the past few years. This is not an EDM-exclusive phenomenon, but with the extra attention put on the increasingly popular genre, each death becomes magnified by the media and outside observers.
Stay tuned for more updates on this story. Festival promoters React Presents have not commented as of yet.
