Los Angeles County “Electronic Music Task Force” Favors Education Over Ban

Following the deaths of two attendees at Pomona’s HARD Summer Festival, we reported back in September that Los Angeles County had formed an “electronic music task force” to crack down on other electronic music related events around the county. It was a threat of a ban that caused Live Nation to scale back it’s HARD Day of the Dead Festival, capping its attendance limit to 40,000.

The Pasadena Star reports that while stricter measures are being pushed — no less than 55 recommendations by the task force have been put forth to the county board — an all-out rave ban for Los Angeles was not among them. The task force will also push for more drug education at dance festivals (the photo of the flyer above was handed out at the Day of the Dead Festival).

Other changes LA ravers can anticipate are “a minimum age of 18 for attendees; more access to water; a requirement for four police officers per 1,000 guests; amnesty boxes before security checkpoints; and the development of “evidence-based educational and informational materials on alcohol and drug use.” The increased security would also include drug-sniffing dogs, DUI and baggage search checkpoints.