Electric Daisy founder Pasquale Rotella called on media to treat raves with ‘perspective’ this week in an opinion piece published by the LA Times in which he concluded ‘electronic music . . . and its fans are here to stay’.
Pointing out that ‘at some point individuals are responsible for their own behavior. We can't prevent every instance of self-destructive behavior’, he went on to compare the lack of media outrage at violence and medical emergencies at sports events and rock concerts.
“The strenuous objections to our events should sound familiar to anyone who remembers early reactions to rock 'n' roll or hip-hop music,” he noted.
“But to suggest, as this newspaper and Coliseum officials have done, that an event such as the Electric Daisy Carnival has no place in Los Angeles is like saying rock concerts should have been banned in California after violence erupted at the Rolling Stones concert in Altamont in 1969,” he suggested. (LA Times: http://lat.ms/phApya )
The decision by the Times to publish Pasquale’s lengthy statement, is a vindication for the Insomniac chief, who was forced to relocate his festival to Vegas this year, following repeatedly negative press reports following the death of a 15 year old reveller.)
Addressing the issue last August, Pascale said in a statement ‘I can’t help but draw comparisons to the ’80s movie classic ‘Footloose,’ where dancing and rock music were banned’ and pointed out over a dozen people have died at sporting events at LA stadiums in recent years.
In one incident last year, 27 year old Los Angeles Angels baseball fan Brian Powers was killed after he was punched from behind as he fought a rival fan inside the stadium, though no subsequent mainstream media reports called for baseball games to be banned.
(LA Times: http://lat.ms/SUAP4 )
Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff
