Fair Park rave ends with one dead, more than 20 at hospitals
A 19-year-old died and more than 20 others were sent to Dallas hospitals from Fair Park on Saturday night during a music festival that drew headlines last year when a 15-year-old girl died from a drug overdose after attending the concert in Los Angeles.
Dallas city officials will be reviewing the circumstances surrounding the man’s death at the rave, an 18-and-older event called Electric Daisy Carnival, known across the country for headlining big names in the electronic music scene.
Organizers estimated 23,600 were in attendance. The crowd cleared out about 1:30 a.m. Sunday after someone pulled a fire alarm.
Andrew Graf, 19, of Argyle was pronounced dead at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. The Dallas County medical examiner’s office has not ruled on a cause of death pending results of toxicology tests.
Andrew’s father, David Graf, said he was at a loss to understand what had happened to his son, a Texas A&M sophomore who went to the show with college friends.
At least one other person who attended the event remained in critical condition Sunday at a Dallas hospital, according to Jason Evans, a spokesman for Dallas Fire-Rescue, which operates the city’s ambulances.
Insomniac Events, the Los Angeles-based promoter of the rave, and the city of Dallas, which oversees Fair Park, defended their roles in the event.
In a prepared statement, city spokesman Frank Librio said Dallas officials are reviewing what happened. But he said security precautions were in place at entrance gates to ensure attendees were at least 18 and were not carrying drugs or alcohol.
“This event was conducted with all of the proper procedures, approvals and safety measures in place including pre-event meetings to address security and police staffing levels,” Librio’s statement said. “All festival attendees went through a driver’s license screening and search process which included searching attendees’ bags as well as having people empty their pockets. No outside beverages were permitted other than a sealed water bottle.”
Fair Park hosted this event in 2010 without similar incidents, the statement concluded.
Craig Holcomb, president of Friends of Fair Park, said that he believes Electric Daisy Carnival attracted 11,000 people without incident last year.
Holcomb said city park and recreation officials are concerned about the system for booking and reviewing the backgrounds of Fair Park event promoters.
“I think they will be reviewing that process early in the morning,” Holcomb said.
Paul Dyer, head of the city park and recreation department, did not return phone calls Sunday.
At least one person was arrested at the concert on a possession of ecstasy charge, according to Dallas police reports.
Evans said distress calls started coming from Fair Park as early as 9 p.m. Saturday for problems “ranging from drug- and alcohol-related emergencies to heat-related calls.”
He said fire inspectors issued citations for overcrowding and for failure to obey the fire marshal’s order to have bands take a break so lights could be turned on “to help govern the crowd.” But Evans said he did not know who received the citations for alleged violations of fire codes.
Erika Raney, spokeswoman for Insomniac Events, said Dallas Fire-Rescue approved the site for nearly 43,000 people — almost twice the number who attended. She said the event employed 200 security personnel, including 35 members of the Dallas Police Department, as well as onsite medics.
She also denied reports from concertgoers that buildings were inadequately air-conditioned.
There were five performance venues at the park, some indoors and some outdoors.
Erin Scogins drove up from Austin with her fiancé for the event. A fan and a veteran of similar events in New York City and Miami, she said she had never seen anything like it.
“It was terrible,” Scogins said. “You could tell some of the people were very young. There was a lot of drug use.”
She said partiers tried to sell her “Mollies,” a street name for a combination of hallucinogens.
Ecstasy, a hallucinogenic drug, was involved in the 2010 death at the Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper reported that the use of drugs was widespread at that event last year.
Scogins confirmed that there were searches at the entry gates, but she said purses were only looked into, not thoroughly searched, and men were only asked to turn their pants pockets inside out. Staffers checked IDs with handheld scanners, she said.
By the time someone pulled the fire alarm, emergency medical professionals already had set up a treatment center. At one point, 10 emergency crews were at the scene.
Concertgoers gave varying accounts of the event, with some reporting chaos and others saying they danced through the night unaware that others were collapsing around them.
Tyler Robb of Fort Worth said he saw few drugs, no violence and only noticed the ambulance lights when he was leaving.
“It was a great event,” the 19-year-old said. “Everyone had a great time until that very last hour, and it got into a jumbled mess.”
But Michael Munsie of Irving said he knew something was wrong early on, when he watched a man dive into a fountain, then pretend to pass out as police pulled him from the water. As paramedics tried to treat him, the man extended his middle finger while a large crowd cheered him and berated the police, Munsie said.
“Then everyone was going into the fountain,” the 23-year-old said. “At one point, at least 30 to 40. The guards had no control.”
Munsie said the rest of his night was marked by shoving crowds, extreme heat, near-constant drug offers and occasional glimpses of paramedics amid the throng.
Many concertgoers reported long water lines and sweltering conditions — with security guards at times blasting the crowds with water guns or air hoses to cool them off. A building was eventually shut down, leaving fans to pack even tighter into the remaining building to see the headliner artist, Skrillex.
Skrillex had barely begun his set before someone pulled the fire alarm. Nevertheless, witnesses reported that the crowd stayed in place for several minutes as the music drowned out the alarm.
Around 1:30 a.m., the music finally stopped. The house lights went on, and Skrillex told the crowd: “The fire marshal’s here. I’m gonna get arrested if I keep playing.”
The fans booed, but eventually scattered from the park. Exaggerated rumors of the night’s death toll quickly spread across the Internet.
“apparently my set killed 7 ppl tonight,” Canadian artist Excision wrote on Facebook.
Staff writer Scott Goldstein contributed to this report.
rabshire@dallasnews.com; aselk@dallasnews.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/20110619-fair-park-rave-ends-with-one-dead-more-than-20-at-hospitals.ece
A 19-year-old died and more than 20 others were sent to Dallas hospitals from Fair Park on Saturday night during a music festival that drew headlines last year when a 15-year-old girl died from a drug overdose after attending the concert in Los Angeles.
Dallas city officials will be reviewing the circumstances surrounding the man’s death at the rave, an 18-and-older event called Electric Daisy Carnival, known across the country for headlining big names in the electronic music scene.
Organizers estimated 23,600 were in attendance. The crowd cleared out about 1:30 a.m. Sunday after someone pulled a fire alarm.
Andrew Graf, 19, of Argyle was pronounced dead at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. The Dallas County medical examiner’s office has not ruled on a cause of death pending results of toxicology tests.
Andrew’s father, David Graf, said he was at a loss to understand what had happened to his son, a Texas A&M sophomore who went to the show with college friends.
At least one other person who attended the event remained in critical condition Sunday at a Dallas hospital, according to Jason Evans, a spokesman for Dallas Fire-Rescue, which operates the city’s ambulances.
Insomniac Events, the Los Angeles-based promoter of the rave, and the city of Dallas, which oversees Fair Park, defended their roles in the event.
In a prepared statement, city spokesman Frank Librio said Dallas officials are reviewing what happened. But he said security precautions were in place at entrance gates to ensure attendees were at least 18 and were not carrying drugs or alcohol.
“This event was conducted with all of the proper procedures, approvals and safety measures in place including pre-event meetings to address security and police staffing levels,” Librio’s statement said. “All festival attendees went through a driver’s license screening and search process which included searching attendees’ bags as well as having people empty their pockets. No outside beverages were permitted other than a sealed water bottle.”
Fair Park hosted this event in 2010 without similar incidents, the statement concluded.
Craig Holcomb, president of Friends of Fair Park, said that he believes Electric Daisy Carnival attracted 11,000 people without incident last year.
Holcomb said city park and recreation officials are concerned about the system for booking and reviewing the backgrounds of Fair Park event promoters.
“I think they will be reviewing that process early in the morning,” Holcomb said.
Paul Dyer, head of the city park and recreation department, did not return phone calls Sunday.
At least one person was arrested at the concert on a possession of ecstasy charge, according to Dallas police reports.
Evans said distress calls started coming from Fair Park as early as 9 p.m. Saturday for problems “ranging from drug- and alcohol-related emergencies to heat-related calls.”
He said fire inspectors issued citations for overcrowding and for failure to obey the fire marshal’s order to have bands take a break so lights could be turned on “to help govern the crowd.” But Evans said he did not know who received the citations for alleged violations of fire codes.
Erika Raney, spokeswoman for Insomniac Events, said Dallas Fire-Rescue approved the site for nearly 43,000 people — almost twice the number who attended. She said the event employed 200 security personnel, including 35 members of the Dallas Police Department, as well as onsite medics.
She also denied reports from concertgoers that buildings were inadequately air-conditioned.
There were five performance venues at the park, some indoors and some outdoors.
Erin Scogins drove up from Austin with her fiancé for the event. A fan and a veteran of similar events in New York City and Miami, she said she had never seen anything like it.
“It was terrible,” Scogins said. “You could tell some of the people were very young. There was a lot of drug use.”
She said partiers tried to sell her “Mollies,” a street name for a combination of hallucinogens.
Ecstasy, a hallucinogenic drug, was involved in the 2010 death at the Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper reported that the use of drugs was widespread at that event last year.
Scogins confirmed that there were searches at the entry gates, but she said purses were only looked into, not thoroughly searched, and men were only asked to turn their pants pockets inside out. Staffers checked IDs with handheld scanners, she said.
By the time someone pulled the fire alarm, emergency medical professionals already had set up a treatment center. At one point, 10 emergency crews were at the scene.
Concertgoers gave varying accounts of the event, with some reporting chaos and others saying they danced through the night unaware that others were collapsing around them.
Tyler Robb of Fort Worth said he saw few drugs, no violence and only noticed the ambulance lights when he was leaving.
“It was a great event,” the 19-year-old said. “Everyone had a great time until that very last hour, and it got into a jumbled mess.”
But Michael Munsie of Irving said he knew something was wrong early on, when he watched a man dive into a fountain, then pretend to pass out as police pulled him from the water. As paramedics tried to treat him, the man extended his middle finger while a large crowd cheered him and berated the police, Munsie said.
“Then everyone was going into the fountain,” the 23-year-old said. “At one point, at least 30 to 40. The guards had no control.”
Munsie said the rest of his night was marked by shoving crowds, extreme heat, near-constant drug offers and occasional glimpses of paramedics amid the throng.
Many concertgoers reported long water lines and sweltering conditions — with security guards at times blasting the crowds with water guns or air hoses to cool them off. A building was eventually shut down, leaving fans to pack even tighter into the remaining building to see the headliner artist, Skrillex.
Skrillex had barely begun his set before someone pulled the fire alarm. Nevertheless, witnesses reported that the crowd stayed in place for several minutes as the music drowned out the alarm.
Around 1:30 a.m., the music finally stopped. The house lights went on, and Skrillex told the crowd: “The fire marshal’s here. I’m gonna get arrested if I keep playing.”
The fans booed, but eventually scattered from the park. Exaggerated rumors of the night’s death toll quickly spread across the Internet.
“apparently my set killed 7 ppl tonight,” Canadian artist Excision wrote on Facebook.
Staff writer Scott Goldstein contributed to this report.
rabshire@dallasnews.com; aselk@dallasnews.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/20110619-fair-park-rave-ends-with-one-dead-more-than-20-at-hospitals.ece
