Does depriving festival goers off their water source really provide a solution to illicit substance use?
Electric Zoo is trying to take every precaution necessary to prevent any problems after the festival’s final day was cancelled last year because of two MDMA-related deaths. It was recently reported that festival attendees will be forced to watch a PSA about the dangers of drug use in order to attend and now the festival has announced that Camelbaks and empty water bottles will be prohibited from being brought onto festival grounds because, according to festival organizers, “they can easily be used to store illicit materials.”
Instead, the festival will provide free cups at all of the water stations and will allow bottles purchased at the event to also be refilled. It’s not clear how large the provided cups will be or whether they will have a resealable lid, which is important if you want to keep attendees hydrated throughout the day. Read Electric Zoo’s full statement about the ban below.
Other prohibited items (beyond the obvious) include glowsticks, e-cigarettes, laser pointers “or similar focused-light devices” and spray bottles. You can, however, bring a small blanket/towel, sunblock, rain ponchos and other essentials.
As expected, the announcement was met with massive resentment. Plenty of commenters on EZoo’s post brought up the numerous fallacies about this new ban:
Not that it’s my bag of excitement or anything, but the #ElectricZoo festival in NY just banned camel backs from their festival. Eeeeeediots
— Dave Hannon (@dave_0h_) August 13, 2014
Something tells me that banning CamelBaks at @ElectricZooNY isn’t the best way to prevent drug-related deaths… #ElectricZoo
— Mack Ward (@mackward) August 13, 2014
Prohibiting camelbacks at #ElectricZoo is destined to backfire. So for no legitimate reasons have come out for this move.
— HaveFun24/7 (@GoodAtHavingFun) August 14, 2014
Electric Zoo takes place from 29 August – 31 August this year at Randalls Island, New York, read more about it HERE.
(Image Courtesy: YourEDM, EZoo Official Facebook)