by Patrick H. Moore
Lovers of “rave culture” simply cannot get enough of those ultra-simpatico communal events in which the People and the Music and and DJ merge and become One with each other and the Beat. No one feels alone and at the risk of sounding corny — which is something I don’t usually worry about — you might say that Love Is in the Air. It doesn’t much matter whether it’s a small intimate rave with friends or a mid-sized club rave or a big stadium rave — these are cool events that ravers live for.
Now it’s hardly a secret that MDMA aka Ecstasy aka E aka Molly aka the Love Drug is consumed by a fair percentage of ravers. Other drugs such as Ketamine and GHB may also be consumed but E is the favorite and perennial standby. The E effect combines the the pleasing light speediness of a super-smooth amphetamine with the mild hallucinatory effect of mescaline, LSD’s mellow cousin.
Now experienced E-imbibers know that there is one cardinal rule that wise ravers ALWAYS follow. You never under any circumstances let yourself get dehydrated. It can get very hot in jam-packed situations with hundreds if not thousands of sweaty glowing bodies dancing to the eternal beat. In theory, if one does get too dehydrated the body can experience severe electrolyte imbalance which can lead to respiratory arrest followed by death.
Tragically, at this weekend’s huge Electric Zoo multiday electronic musical festival on Randalls Island in the East River, two concertgoers died and at least four others fell critically ill during the first two days of the event. Vivian Lee and William K. Rashbaum of the New York Times report:
Citing “serious health risks,” the city recommended canceling the event, hours before the third day of the festival, known as the Electric Zoo, was to begin, and the festival’s organizers agreed, the mayor’s office said. The announcement said that both deaths had appeared to involve the drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy or molly, though the causes of death had not been officially determined.
“The Electric Zoo organizers have worked with city officials to reduce health risks at this event, but in view of these occurrences, the safest course is to cancel the remaining day of the event,” the mayor’s office said in a statement.
This was the fifth consecutive year that the Electric Zoo festival was held over the Labor Day weekend; last year, it drew crowds of more than 100,000 people to Randalls Island. This year, the festival was to feature more than 125 electronic music acts on five stages this year, including Avicii, David Guetta and Krewella.
At this point, there is no way of knowing whether the two deaths were caused by the E dehydration syndrome. There’s not even any evidence that I am aware that the the deceased parties, Jeffrey Russ, 23, of Rochester, N.Y., and Olivia Rotondo, 20, of Providence, R.I., had even taken E or any other drug.
Although raves and electronic music events are often considered “cutting edge”, the larger events such as the Electric Zoo festival are actually pretty mainstream and attract a great many “normal folks” who are also confirmed electronic music fans. This certainly seems to be the case with Jeffrey Russ, based on information provided by his aunt, Patty Fanto-Holdaway, who said he had been an information technology major at Syracuse, and wanted to run his own sports blog. A golfer and football player in high school, Mr. Russ grew up a passionate Buffalo Bills fan. He and his friends were fans of electronic music and had gone to a festival last spring. At Electric Zoo this weekend, Mr. Russ had seen a performance by Avicii, his favorite electronic music artist, just before falling ill.
According to his father, John Russ, Jeffrey graduated in 2012 from Syracuse University. Jeffrey had gone to the festival with 23 members of his Syracuse fraternity class and friends from Rochester.
“He was a very good son,” said John Russ, and Ms. Fanto-Holdaway added, “He was a big jokestar. He did light up every room.”
The preliminary police reports indicate that Mr. Russ went into respiratory arrest about 3:10 a.m. Saturday and was taken by ambulance to Harlem Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 3:21 a.m.
The second victim, Ms. Rotondo, was a communications major at the University of New Hampshire. She was taken to Metropolitan Hospital at 8:45 p.m. on Saturday and was pronounced dead about 45 minutes later. The police said that both deaths appeared to be “non-suspicious” and consistent with drug use.
Ms. Rotondo close friend, Noah Burkholz, stated that Ms. Rotondo enjoyed music and dancing. “She was the nicest girl I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.”
The concert promoter, Made Event, released the following statement:
“The founders of Electric Zoo send our deepest condolences to the families of the two people who passed away this weekend. Because there is nothing more important to us than our patrons, we have decided in consultation with the New York City parks department that there will be no show today.”