Prevalence of drug overdoses, sexual assaults and emergency room visits is prompting the City of Edmonton to consider imposing an immediate moratorium on raves, also known as electronic dance music (EDM) parties.
Based on the statistics in a new city report, people at raves are about 30 times more likely to be taken to hospital via ambulance than those who attend concerts.
In 2017, there were six raves at city-owned facilities where a total of 84 people were treated for drug-related illnesses and another 26 were taken to emergency rooms.
In contrast, 14 concerts at Rogers Place and Commonwealth last year saw seven people taken to hospital while no one was treated for drug-related illnesses.
The report suggests raves are having a negative impact on all emergency services across the city and recommends temporarily banning them while a thorough review takes place.
Councillor Scott McKeen said he supports a moratorium.
“I can tell you the last thing I want to do is shut down the vibrancy in this community,” McKeen said. “There are problems and people are being put at risk and I think we have to react to that.”
Event promoter thinks ban will make situation worse
Boodang has been bringing EDM parties to the city for nearly two decades.
Viet Nguyen said he was surprised when the report came out, adding event promoters were not consulted.
He believes it is unfair that raves are being compared to concerts.
“The demographic is completely different. You’re comparing apples to oranges,” he said.
He said his company has been working diligently to reduce the number of overdoses and people requiring hospitalization.
The report shows most of Boodang’s events see fewer than five people taken to hospital.
He admits he is concerned about spikes at two recent events they hosted: Scream on October 28, 2017 and Frequency on February 18. 2018, which saw 15 and 11 people taken to hospital respectively.
“The numbers are concerning, but that’s something we need to work on. We, as a community, need to come together to come up with solutions,” Nguyen said.
He said it is more productive to investigate why people at those two events required more medical attention than other raves than a blanket solution to ban all raves.
He is worried if a moratorium is introduced, EDM events will go underground where there are no sanctions.
“There are no rules in place regarding how many medical staff you need, how many police you need. It’s just going to make things worse.”
Culture of sexual assault 'troubling'
The report found the most predominant drugs consumed at raves are ecstasy, ketamine, cocaine and date-rape drug (GHB).
“The number of sexual assaults is really troubling. People are allowing their sons and daughters to go to those events and I think city council at some point has a duty of care to say, ‘Enough,’” McKeen said.
Nguyen believes raves get a bad reputation.
“Not everyone is doing drugs or partying like this report is saying. We’re there to listen to the music,” he said. “Now a few bad seeds have spoiled it. But at the same time, we need to come up with solutions.”
The report goes to a city committee on Wednesday, June 6.
With files from Nahreman Issa
