News: Skrillex Concert Ends with 16 Hospitalized
By Marc Blanc, Contributor
Ten thousand people attended EDM superstar Skrillex’s Chicago show on October 18, and 16 of the concertgoers ended the night in area hospitals. NBC Chicago broke the story late last week. Navy Pier, the venue, could not confirm whether the hospitalizations were due to drug overdose. Multiple media outlets adopted the story, inserting the phrase “drug overdose” in headlines anyway. But Andrew Bazos, head of security at the show, told NBC the majority of emergencies were alcohol related.
No deaths have been reported, and Skrillex has not commented on record about the hospitalizations. In January, however, he addressed the EDM scene’s perceived drug problem, partly attributed to certain adolescent overdoses at festivals since 2010, the year Skrillex “broke dubstep” with his single “Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites.” The half-shaven DJ told the Toronto Sun, “The tragedies that get reported are within a minority of shows … you can’t blame an idea for how a culture has taken it and run with it.”
Countless EDM shows occur without reported incidents, but the culture has struggled to shake its ecstasy-laden stigma. Electronic artists Kaskade and Sebastian Ingrosso have also publicly discredited any direct connection between their genre and MDMA. Responding to the University of Massachusetts cancelling concerts last year because “the Molly-taking culture at these shows is exceedingly dangerous,” Kaskade tweeted: “But, WHAT IF we switched out a few words in that statement? For instance, ‘Molly’ with ‘Alcohol’, and ‘These shows’ with ‘The NFL’?”
