http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGFf2ZRhHd0
Wednesday July 27th started out as a day filled with a twitter organized Kaskade headlined block party followed by the premiere of the “EDC Experience”. However due to flashcrowds, violence, and vandalism both events were KO’d by the fire marshalls/police. The block party and premiere were supposed to be invite only, but in this day and age where social media is so advanced – nothing is kept a secret for long. First, mobs of people filled the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland, after the police managed to convince a few people to leave the crowd then migrated outside of Graumann’s Chinese Theater (where the premiere was being held). The LAPD brought out the riot gear in order to peacefully disperse the commotion.
Pasquale Rotella, whose Insomniac Events company throws EDC told the Hollywood Reporter that there was no relationship between the block party and the movie premiere.
“The crowd issues that arose were a result of individuals responding to social media information, which mistakenly led them to believe they could see artists perform”, Rotella stated. He said the Hollywood Boulevard shutdown led to the cancellation of the “EDC Experience” premiere.
This leads us to our second point – what are the ramifications on the EDM community? LA could not handle the capacity of people for EDC, which was uncomfortably crowded. Now there is a block party and premiere cancelled on the same day due to similar circumstances. The EDM nation does not promote violence or misconduct, but with medical issues surrounding raves and now rioting, outsiders looking in on our world may have a negative opinion on the music in general.
Props to Kaskade for attempting to calm the situation down via twitter. Kaskade tweeted, “Everyone chill out. The cops are freaking out. Be safe and lets have some fun.” Needless to say, the tweet did not work and Kaskade shortly dispersed thereafter.
The incidents of today prove two things.
1) Our music is exponentially growing and gathering fans from all corners of the world. It is up to us to promote the genre and shine a positive light on all events in order to garner more recognition as the leading form of ‘pop culture’.
2) If you were one of the people who were astonished at how high ticket prices have gone up in the last two years to see your favorite DJ’s spin. This is a perfect example of why. Exclusivity brings about a sense of worth to the event and also detracts from unrulineness, it is unfortunate that amount of money you have could potentially dictate whether or not you can listen to EDM without worrying about safety hazards.
A day that was set out to be a huge stepping stone for house music eventually developed into a huge liability.
Via: Associated Press, Twitter (@Kaskade), Hollywood Reporter
Video Credit: Ricomix Productions
I don’t know what everyone was expecting to happen. If Kaskade posts about having a free show people will show up, lots of people. And the fact this was so last minute didn’t give the city any time to prepare for this kind of crowd. We also have to remember this was a free for all. I was there i saw people of all ages, and I think that was a huge contributing factor to this mess. Had this somehow been a 21+ event or even 18+ the crowd would have been far smaller and easier to control.
Whatever it is i really hope this dosent reflect badly on EDM or even Kaskade for that matter.
Not sure where DA is getting their information, but THIS WAS A FREE SHOW FOR EVERYONE. They need not look any further than Kaskade’s own facebook page:
YES!!! Tonight at 6 pm at Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, it goes down! I got the truck, speakers and music. Let’s have a party. FREE FOR ALL!
^^Adam is correct. Kaskade is an international superstar, and if he posts that he’ll be playing a free show, a TON of people will show up. It was an ambition show but an impromptu one as well. The city was not prepared to handle the amount of people. This does not reflect poorly on EDM. If Metallica tweeted about a free show in Hollywood, the outcome would have been much worse. Of course exclusivity excludes unruliness, but no music genre should be predicated on exclusivity, especially EDM because we’re all about open source networks and communities.
digi10ve has a more unbiased and less judgmental account of what happened yesterday.
http://digi10ve.com/2011/07/27/kaskade-show-gets-shuts-down-in-hollywood/
I’m usually a huge fan of DA, but this article is full of ignorance and patronization.
whats really shitty is that the theaters in in phoenix and mesa az aren’t going to show the movie, now what the f*ck am i supposed to do, they better put it out on blueray quick!