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Live Nation sued over drug death at Electric Daisy Carnival

By | Published on Thursday 22 June 2017

Live Nation

The parents of a man who died at the 2015 edition of the flagship Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas are suing the festival’s promoter, claiming that the slow response of staff at the event to their son’s medical emergency led to his death.

Live Nation is involved in the dance music festival via its alliance with Insomniac Events, and both are listed as defendants on the new lawsuit. The legal papers concede that Nicholas Tom collapsed after taking ecstasy on the third day of the festival. But the lawsuit then alleges that it took attendees and festival staff 30 minutes to get Tom to a medical tent, that said tent was then empty, and that the crew that did subsequently arrive did not have the required medical training. Tom died while in the medical tent.

Shortly after Tom’s death in 2015, Insomniac expressed condolences to the festival-goer’s family, before adding in a statement that: “Participating in illicit drug behaviour can have tragic consequences and we hold a strict zero tolerance policy for illegal activity while continually educating our fans on the dangers of drug use”.

Neither Live Nation nor Insomniac have responded to the Tom family’s lawsuit. There has, of course, been much debate of late about the limitations of venues and festivals having ‘zero tolerance’ policies to drugs, and of the importance of promoters having sufficient medical staff on site and running high profile education campaigns about the dangers of illegal substances, and how to consume them more safely.



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