Published
Mon, Nov 2, 2015, 15:39
- HARD Day Of The Dead and Escape: Psycho Circus were under increased scrutiny after rave incidents this past summer.
Almost 500 arrests were made at two festivals in Pomona and San Bernadino, California, this past weekend.
Halloween weekend played host to two large-scale festivals in Southern California—HARD Day Of The Dead in Pomona, and Escape: Psycho Circus in San Bernadino, just east of LA. According to the LA Times, most of the arrests were for charges such as public intoxication, possession of illegal drugs, trespassing and possession of fake IDs. The Live Nation-promoted HARD took the brunt of the police attention, following the deaths of two underage girls at their HARD Summer event a few months back.
The deaths led to the formation of an LA County task force that is considering a ban on raves on public property, like the Fairplex in Pomona where HARD takes place. (The festival in San Bernadino falls outside the jurisdiction of LA County.) HARD had already taken extra precautions this year, including making the festival 21-and-up, lowering capacity and paying for extra police, medical tents and fire safety presence. Though the number of arrests was high, there were no major incidents at either festival.