Edmonton raves in spotlight after six revellers hospitalized

City works to minimize and eliminate medical incidents due to drug use

EDMONTON Raves are again in the spotlight after six people were transported to hospital — four in serious and potentially life-threatening condition — from a dance event Friday night at West Edmonton Mall’s World Waterpark.

Alberta Health Services confirmed Wednesday that the two other patients transported from the Soundwave event — touted as the “wildest indoor beach party” — to hospital were in stable condition.

Those numbers are in stark contrast to two other raves held earlier this summer.

No patients were transported from the Bomfest Outdoor Music Concert held at the Edmonton Expo Centre over the Labour Day long weekend and just one person was taken to hospital in stable condition from Stacked 2018, held at the Shaw Conference Centre on Sept. 15.

News of the hospitalizations comes as Edmonton’s community and public services committee received a preliminary report into electronic dance music events in the city.

Prompted by concerns of “prevalent drug use, drug-facilitated sexual assaults, and resulting public safety issues” as well as the drain those medical emergencies have on health providers, the committee asked administration in June to meet with venue operators, event organizers and other agencies to discuss harm reduction strategies and ways to improve safety at the events.

A report tabled at the time and prepared by administration showed that of the six raves held at Shaw Conference Centre in 2017, some 84 patients were transported to hospital. That was up from the 78 patients hospitalized from seven large dance events in 2016.

In comparison, no revellers were transported from six other major events in 2017 that included performances by Garth Brooks, Tool and Metallica.

As part of the process, city administration, the Edmonton Police Service and Emergency Medical Services formed an advisory committee that met with 21 representatives of the electronic dance music industry and harm reduction specialists to begin the process of establishing best practices.

That same committee will continue to meet with those groups as those industry-wide strategies are developed. Its scope does not include dance events held at bars or clubs with less than 1,500 attendees, or to music events where attendees are primarily seated.

Some of the ideas being explored include requesting large-scale raves to submit applications in advance for review and recommendation.

“Obviously nobody wants these medical events to happen … it’s unfortunate that it happened but the city will keep moving forward working with the different stakeholders and police to try and figure out how to minimize, reduce or eliminate these kinds of medical events,” said Colin Simpson, a member of the city’s public safety compliance team.

No one from Soundwave or West Edmonton Mall was immediately available for comment.

Edmonton Police Service said there were no arrests.

Obviously nobody wants these medical events to happen … it’s unfortunate that it happened but the city will keep moving forward.