Well in case you didn't hear the big news, the Bay Area's premier edm festival LovEvolution is back! Noteworthy for its infamous cancellation last year due to lack of cooperation from the city of San Francisco, this year its back with a facelift and new venue: the Oracle coliseum grounds in Oakland. Now while I am happy for Skills getting their premiere event back and the edm enthusiasts of the Bay Area having something to be happy about (without having to drive to LA or Vegas for an event like this), this still presents a problem. That problem is one little word: Oakland. Good that the artist formerly known as Lovefest is back; Bad that its in the worst city to put together an event like this. Its no secret that Oakland has a problem with crime, theft, and drugs. With the edm scene having a bad enough image problem as it does in California (last year's POP and EDC deaths), having it the bay area's crime capitol will not help our rallying cry of "saving the rave". Don't get me wrong, in all the years Lovefest was in SF, 100% of the population were not angels. I know there was plenty of drugs, crime, vandalism, and property destruction to go around, but for the most part SFPD kept things under control and the city had the civic center spotless by the next morning as if an event had never happened. Oakland presents a problem in the sense that they hold one of the poorest police departments. Layoffs and budget cuts to this PD have been pretty drastic, which only bodes poorly for those looking to have a good time in Oakland. Add into the fold that for the type of event that Skills is planning to organize at the coliseum grounds, considering the location and lack of police, you would probably need some EDC worthy security; something I'm not sure can be provided given the past incidents at past events. Having LovEvolution in Oakland has the potential to harm the edm/dance/rave image even worse than it already is. Imagine if we have even more deaths and/or overdoses? Let's not even mention drug dealers looking to make big scores, cars being broken into, pick pocketing, and other things that could happen in the surrounding areas. This would be pretty much catastrophic to the "Save The Rave" movement. I don't mean to be a negative Nancy, but I'm sure if you put together the statistics of drug use, drug sales, theft, rape, and other crimes of edm events thrown in Oakland vs edm events thrown in San Francisco....the numbers would speak for themselves. I am very excited to read about Dash Berlin, Laidback Luke, and most of all Gareth Emery being added to the bill. Good for Skills for their clout. I just hope they put this together the right way. Edm in the Bay Area needs some big time help and this event has the potential to make our break our case. I, like many, love electronic music and hope to see our issues in the Bay Area rectified.
~Mark
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