The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will discuss moving to ban raves at county facilities after two women collapsed from suspected drug overdoses over the weekend at the L.A. County Fairgrounds and later died.
The deaths occurred on the opening night of the Hard Summer music festival in Pomona and have raised new concerns about whether officials can do more to deal with drug issues at the events.
After a teenage girl’s fatal overdose in 2010 at the Electric Daisy Carnival at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a task force created by county supervisors recommended a series of preventive measures at the electronic dance music festivals known as raves — including ensuring adequate pathways for medical personnel, ample water stations, screening upon entry for drug paraphernalia and illicit drugs, and sufficient security.
Cynthia Harding, the county’s interim public health director, said she did not know whether any of those precautions were in place in Pomona for Hard Summer at the Fairplex, which is operated by the nonprofit Los Angeles County Fair Assn. on land mostly leased from the Los Angeles County government.
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