148 arrested at Pomona music fest
Promoters beefed up safety and security measures at music fests in Pomona and San Bernardino.
Most arrests are for drugs or drinking at the electronic music event. Many arrests are also made at a San Bernardino event.
More than 320 people were arrested over the weekend at two electronic music festivals in Pomona and San Bernardino, authorities said Sunday.
On Saturday, the first day of the Halloweenthemed Hard Day of the Dead festival at the Pomona Fairplex, 148 people were arrested, according to the Pomona Police Department. Authorities in San Bernardino made about 180 arrests at the two-day Escape: Psycho Circus, which began Friday at the National Orange Show Events Center.
At the Pomona rave, which featured Skrillex, Deadmau5 and Hot Chip among the headliners, most arrests were for public intoxication, possession of illegal drugs or being under the influence of a controlled substance, police said in a statement.
More than 50 people were arrested for having fake identification, police said. Arrest statistics for Sunday, the final day of the event, were not available. Police said no major incidents were reported.
Raves such as HARD Day of the Dead, put on by Live Nation Entertainment, have come under renewed scrutiny following the deaths of two young women of apparent drug overdose after they attended the Aug. 1 Hard Summer rave, also at the Pomona Fairplex.
Several emergency room physicians have said that raves threaten public health, overwhelming hospitals and emergency rooms with young ravegoers, many suffering from seizures, comas or deaths from illicit drugs.
After this summer’s deaths, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously convened a task force to examine rave safety.
The fairgrounds are managed by a nonprofit and sit on county-owned land.
Beverly Hills-based Live Nation agreed to cancel a Sept. 10 electronic music event and added new measures for this weekend’s festival, including capping attendance to 40,000 a day, instead of 65,000, and raising the minimum age to 21. The two women who died this summer were under 21.
The festival drew 20,000 people on Saturday, and Live Nation did not expect Sunday’s crowd to exceed that number, though figures were not available, an event spokeswoman said.
Other safety and security precautions included dozens of medical staff at two designated medical areas; three on-site emergency room physicians; 184 police officers; and 24 free water distribution points. The music festival paid for all the costs for police, fire and medical personnel.
Live Nation initially did not grant media credentials for the event but last week said it would offer credentials “to qualifying media,” the festival spokeswoman said.
Insomniac, a Live Nation subsidiary, put on the Escape: Psycho Circus rave in San Bernardino, which drew about 42,000 people Friday and 46,000 Saturday, said San Bernardino police Lt. Richard Lawhead.
That festival had no major incidents, and most of the arrests were for illegal drug possession, trespassing or public intoxication, Lawhead said.