San Bernardino police evaluating latest mega rave

SAN BERNARDINO — Twenty-five thousand showed up at the National Orange Show for a rave on Sunday. Fifteen wound up at the hospital and police made 21 felony arrests during an electronic music festival known as “Audiotistic.”

San Bernardino police officials, who reported just two noise complaints, thought the event might have gone better than similar raves.

“Although there were still some issues, the number of problems is an improvement over some of the past events of this nature,” said Lt. Jarrod Burguan.

Last fall at the Nocturnal Wonderland Festival, one adult died of a suspected drug overdose, 28 were arrested and nearly 100 were treated for medical issues. That event was attended by nearly 40,000 people.

Burguan said that police officials would review this past weekend’s rave and evaluate “enhanced rave safety,” as a task force had done for an event held in Los Angeles, an hour away from San Bernardino.

One of the biggest concerns, said Burguan, was a rave dubbed “Electric Daisy Carnival” at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in which a 15-year-old girl died of an overdose.

“There was considerable interest in this concert following the tragic death of a teenager,” said Burguan.

Burguan said that the Orange Show staff, along with concert promoter, Insomniac, met with police prior to this weekend’s rave. The promoter agreed to pay for police officers to work the event. One of its safeguards was to close it off to people younger than 18. The event was held from 6 p.m. on Saturday until 4 a.m. on Sunday.

“We’re still looking at the whole thing,” Burguan said on Monday.

While there were a number of misdemeanor arrests this past weekend, no one that was sent to the hospital was thought to have a life-threatening problem.

Burguan said there would be continued evaluations of such events. “We will make recommendations based on the impact to public safety,” he said, “regarding future events.”