Joe.My.God. LGBT News
TampaBay.com reports:
Two people died after attending the Sunset Music Festival at Raymond James Stadium over the Memorial Day weekend, according to Tampa police. A 22-year-old man was hospitalized Saturday and died Sunday, Tampa police spokesman Steve Hegarty said, and a 21-year-old woman was taken to a hospital Sunday and died Monday.
While investigators await the results of toxicology tests, Hegarty said that police think the deaths “are related to the Sunset Music Festival.”
But those were not the only medical issues authorities dealt with during the electronic dance music concert on Saturday and Sunday, which was reportedly attended by 30,000 people. Tampa police said 57 people attending the event were taken to local hospitals.
“Obviously, that type of music tends to attract a certain type of fan that engages in certain types of drugs,” Mayor Bob Buckhorn said Tuesday.
The electronic dance music scene has a history of drug use and drug-related deaths, especially linked to the use of MDMA, the drug also known as ecstasy or Molly.
RELATED: Last month a Buenos Aires judge ordered the temporary closure of all nightclubs after five drug-related deaths at a local EDM festival. In 2013 then-NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the closure of Electric Zoo, a three-day EDM festival held on Randall’s Island, after two attendees died from drug overdoses on the event’s opening night. The event was allowed to resume the following year after organizers agreed to broadcast an anti-drug PSA several times a night.