148 Arrested In 1 Day As Safety Measures Ramped Up At Electronic Music Festival In Pomona
POMONA (CBSLA.com) — Pomona police arrested 148 people during the first day of a two-day music festival on Saturday as the event's promoter has been told by lawmakers to improve safety measures at its events.
At the Hard Day of the Dead music festival on Saturday, police said they were busy with a lot of fake IDs, people drunk in public and drug carrying ravers.
Fifty of the arrests on Saturday were for fake IDs, 10 for driving under the influence and the remaining 88 jailings were for offenses ranging from public intoxication, being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance for personal use or sales.
"There's always a lot of drug use I mean that just goes hand and hand with these events," one festival goer said. "Unfortunately, it is what it is."
The festival's organizer, Live Nation Entertainment of Beverly Hills, has been pressured in recent months to improve safety measures after an 18-year-old woman and a 19-year-old woman died from apparent drug overdoses during the Hard summer music festival in August.
Following those deaths, LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis got a motion passed to require the Halloween-weekend festival to take additional safety measures. For example, the number of attendees was limited to 40,000. There were also provisions to add cooling stations and medical staff and to only let in those who are 21 and older.
The Hard Day of the Dead music festival was held Saturday and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Pomona Fairplex. There were shows on five stages. Musical acts included Deadmau5, Juicy J, Gastly, Glass Animals, Jack Beats, Jamie Jones, Claptone, Boys Noize, Skrillex, and Destructo. There were at least seven mini-bars set up around the Fairplex grounds.
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