UPDATEDx3 personal account and photos: Electric Daisy Carnival in Dallas ended abruptly; one dead

Details are still developing.

Electric Daisy Carnival at Fair Park (June 18)

Photos by Josh Hogan

FAIR PARK — A spokesman with Dallas Fire-Rescue confirmed that one 19-year-old man died at Baylor Hospital after being at the Electric Daisy Carnival on Saturday in Dallas; a second concertgoer of unknown age and gender is in critical condition at Dallas Methodist.

[UPDATE x3: The DMN reports that a second death may be linked to the concert. 22-year-old Kyle Haigis ran onto 75 near Sherman and was killed after being at the concert. A friend told police he took ecstasy at the concert.]

[UPDATE x2: The concert, tagged a “rave” by the fire department, was also cited ~~for overcrowding and failure to obey the fire marshal~~ seven times: twice for overcrowding, twice for failure to obtain a count of occupants, and three times for obstruction of justice. Jason Evans of Dallas-Fire Rescue also said that a "majority of patients" taken to area hospitals were transported for drug-related issues.]

Photo by Josh Hogan

At least one concertgoer hopped in the fountain in Fair Park to cool off.

An organizer of the carnival did not return phone calls. [UPDATE: We did, however, get more information from the city and some emailed information from the concert promoter, Insomniac Events.]

The Dallas concert marks another teen death at the traveling electronic music festival. In 2010, the concert was essentially banished from Los Angeles because a 15-year-old girl died from a drug overdose. This is the second year that Electric Daisy Carnival has been in Dallas.

Several 911 calls were made from the Electric Daisy Carnival on Saturday night in Fair Park beginning as early as 9 p.m. and ending at 1:30 a.m. when someone in the concert pulled a fire alarm, confirmed Jason Evans of Dallas Fire-Rescue. A press release called it “chaos” and said that 10 rescue units were at the event at one time.

The people treated for 911 calls had drug and alcohol-related emergencies and heat-related incidents. About 25 or 30 people were taken to the hospital.

We had writer Josh Hogan on-site to review the concert. Despite the heat, he said the crowd was surprisingly content and the atmosphere wasn't chaotic, even when he left at midnight. Here's his personal account:

We arrived at Fair Park shortly after 4 p.m. and waited in line in what was surely triple-digit heat. The entrance had three stations: At the first station, ID's were checked and scanned; at the second, we were asked to take everything out of our pockets and to turn our pockets inside out; at the third, our tickets were scanned and we were granted access to the festival. The stations were set up far enough apart that it wasn't apparent that crowds would be searched until arriving at the next station. It seems the organizers did their due diligence to prevent illegal substances from entering the grounds.

There was nothing but good vibes throughout the afternoon and into the evening. We saw no major incidents and there was a very-visible police force on duty.

The heat however, was intense. Even after the sun went down, it was overwhelming, especially inside the two buildings that housed the most popular stages. With water going for $3 a bottle, staying properly hydrated was expensive.

We saw the first ambulance pull out of the festival with its lights on at around 8:30 p.m. We never saw another one.

We left the grounds shortly before midnight, at what was probably the peak of the festival. For the vast majority of us, Saturday night was a fun-filled party with no incidents. The tragic death and hospitalizations seemed to be in stark contrast to the majority of good times being had. However, it’s impossible to be taken by total surprise by the news: It’s clear that this festival has work to do if Electric Daisy can continue.

Hosting the concert in a massive warehouse in the middle of June in Texas, while charging a pretty penny for water, is asking for trouble. For $70 a ticket, hydration should be guaranteed.

In a statement, the Dallas-Fire Rescue spokesperson says that fire inspectors asked concert promoters to have the bands take a 30-minute break to turn up the lights and calm the crowd. “The request was refused,” the fire department said in a statement. “Fortunately, the stage manager stopped the bands and turned on the lights, and that was when the alarm was pulled.”

Photo by Josh Hogan

The heat was a problem for many concertgoers.

Concern over the age of the person who died has since been quelled. It was originally reported that the deceased was 15 years old, and Electric Daisy Carnival is an 18-and-up event. Fire-Rescue has since confirmed that the age of the deceased is 19 years old.

According to a city of Dallas statement that was confirmed by our writer, festival attendees were ID'd before entering the facility, and no one was allowed to bring beverages inside Fair Park besides a sealed water bottle.

reidojunk, anonymous:

There was a free water station at which you could refill any drink cup/bottle that you had purchased from a vendor or the $10 aluminum water bottle that they had for sale.

Water availability was not a problem.