ELECTRIC ZOO 2013 – DAY 3 CANCELLED

Electric Zoo, known as one of the biggest electronic music festivals worldwide at NY’s Randall’s Island, cancelled day 3 of performances due to 2 deaths from festival goers. In the past 5 years since it was launched, the festival has grown from a one day event to over 100,000 attendees over 3 days.  This morning it was announced that city officials were cancelling the last day as a result of the deaths, which were suspected to be a result of overdose of drug MDMA – otherwise known as “Molly”.  Festival leaders posted a statement on their website: “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.”  DJ sets that were cancelled included Armin Van Buuren, Diplo, Krewella, Firebeatz, Laidback Luke, Sebastion Ingrosso, Steve Aoki and W & W – among others.

On Friday and Saturday, the festival featured DJ sets from headliners such as Avicii, Benny Benassi, David Guetta, Tiesto, Hardwell and Sander Van Doorn. Attendance at the festival was at record breaking numbers, with festival goers dressed up as “party animals” ready to hit the Zoo. The overall atmosphere was upbeat, and the DJ sets kept the crowd dancing from early sets starting at 11am in the morning until the finale set which ended at 11pm. Over the loud speakers there were regular announcements encouraging the wild crowd to stay safe, to watch out for each other and to help anyone who appeared to be in distress.  The event brochure – given out to festival goers at arrival – featured an entire section on safety and their anti-drug policy, “Electric Zoo strongly advocates against the use of drugs.  Avoiding drug use is the only way to completely avoid drug related risks. You don’t need drugs anyway when world class music is swirling around you. Know that mixing drugs and alcohol, or frequent and increased use, will increase your risks of life threatening problems…” It is sad to hear despite their efforts to warn festival goers from abusing drugs that such a heartbreaking situation would have happened.  Our condolences go out to the families affected by this tragedy.

Electric Zoo photos © The Untitled Magazine