San Bernardino\’s Nocturnal Wonderland Festival may have broken a record this weekend, and not one they will be proud of. In the first two days of the Labor Day weekend festival, over 200 attendees were arrested–mostly for trying to sneak in. 76 people were arrested on Friday and a whopping 123 on Saturday, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff\’s Captain Stephen Dorsey. He said that there were also several arrests for people trying to buy or sell drugs.
That number becomes even more insane when you consider the number in attendance–There were 123 arrests and about 31,000 attendees on Saturday, so that breaks down to about 1 out of every 300 attendees being put in handcuffs! With the future of EDM events in Los Angeles (which is only about 60 miles west of San Bernardino) already in question after the deaths of two young women at HARD summer, this doesn\’t exactly in put EDM events in a more positive light in the valley, even though there were no deaths reported (so far) at the event.
Captain Dosey had a powerful message for anyone considering sneaking into this even or future concerts. \”You’re not welcome here unless you’re paying,\” he warned. I suggest we heed his advice if we want to see a brighter future for EDM in Los Angeles.
