BOSTON and NEW YORK — Separate drug-related incidents claimed the lives of three EDM revelers in late August, with one death canceling an EDM concert in Boston on Aug. 28 and two more deaths leading to the cancellation of the final day’s performances for the three-day Electric Zoo Music Festival at Randall’s Island Park in NYC over Labor Day weekend, Aug. 30-Sept. 1. (E-Zoo 2012 is pictured here).
The first incident occurred during an appearance by EDM artist Zedd at the House of Blues in Boston on Tuesday, Aug. 27, where show attendee Brittany Flannigan, 19, from Derry, N.H., died from apparent drug use, and two other revelers were hospitalized. The Zedd show slated for Aug. 28 was cancelled.
The first reported death linked to The Electric Zoo Festival, a.k.a. E-Zoo 2013, was Jeffrey Russ, 23, of Rochester, NY, who had attended the festival on Friday, Aug. 30 and was rushed to the hospital early Saturday morning, Aug. 31. He was pronounced dead at 3:21 a.m. The second was Olivia Rotondo, 20, of Providence, R.I., who died at about 9:30 Saturday evening. Four others were hospitalized, reportedly in critical condition.
The 2013 edition of E-Zoo, the event’s fifth consecutive Labor Day weekend EDM festival, was to feature a lineup of 125 electronic artists working the event’s five stages. Zedd was also in the lineup for E-Zoo 2013, along with Avicii, Bassnectar, Chase & Status, David Guetta, Hardwell, Steve Aoki and Tommy Trash, among others.
E-Zoo had rocketed to prominence since its debut on Randall’s Island over Labor Day weekend in 2009, growing in attendance from 26,000 its first year to 110,000 in 2012. Mike Bindra and Laura De Palma, co-founders of E-Zoo organizer Made Events, posted this announcement Sept. 1 on their website, madeevents.com:
“The founders of Electric Zoo send our deepest condolences to the families of the two people who passed away this weekend. Because there is nothing more important to us than our patrons, we have decided in consultation with the New York City Parks Department that there will be no show today.”
While the cause of death remained unconfirmed at press time, reports indicated the suspected use of MDMA, also known as Ecstasy or Molly.
