Electric Zoo Requiring Fans to Watch Anti-Drug Video for Admission to Festival
As the Electric Zoo prepares to commence once again in New York City, the EDM festival’s organizers are instituting an unusual new measure in hopes of preventing drug overdoses. Festivalgoers will be required to watch an anti-drug PSA in order to be admitted onto festival grounds, CNN reports.
The video, posted on YouTube under the heading “Electric Zoo: Come to Life” shows a man enthusiastically downing a pill while taking in a “sick show,” though he admits to his friend that he doesn’t know what’s in the pill. His behavior and perceptions become increasingly unstable and he begins to sweat profusely until everything goes dark. “Don’t miss the moment. Be present. Avoid the risks,” the video advises. The PSA was created, written and produced by Dexter creator and writer James Manos, Jr. and his 19-year-old daughter Ellie Manos.
“Our message to concertgoers is simple: The Electric Zoo experience is exceptional and worth being present for,” Made Event founders Laura De Palma and Mike Bindra said in a joint statement. “Molly can cause you to not only miss the moment, alienate your friends and have an overall adverse and unpleasant experience … but can also make you sick and can even be fatal. Fans will experience how great it is to ‘Come To Life’ at one of our concerts from lights, sounds and crowds.” According to the Associated Press, the code to activate festival wrist bands will be in the video, so ticket buyers can’t be admitted without watching it.
The final day of last year’s Electric Zoo was canceled after two attendees died from fatal overdoses of MDMA. The festival announced in April that they would be increasing security and health measures this year, including stationing drug-sniffing dogs at all entrances, posting plainclothes security officers to patrol the grounds, shortening the length of each day’s show, and providing free water and cheap electrolytes to festivalgoers.
In late July, the Drug Enforcement Agency announced that it had tracked down and arrested a man who sold the pills that led to one of last year’s deaths.
Electric Zoo kicks off on Randall’s Island August 29th and runs through the 31st, with a lineup including David Guetta, Nicky Romero, Armin Van Buren, Zedd, Alesso and Kaskade.