Everyone's always speculating when the EDM bubble will burst and to me there's always been two likely scenarios: 1. the mainstream appeal eclipses all of the raw aspects of the scene that drew us to it in the first place, effectively destroying it, 2. the politicians shut it down. Which will happen first, I have no idea, and there's bound to be some kind of overlap. Californians are all too aware of the second scenario. The dynamic LA scene immediately dismantled following the death of 15-year old Sasha Rodriguez at EDC 2010, with surprisingly strong opposition even from the liberals.
In January 2011, Democratic assemblywoman Fiona Ma introduced the Anti-Raves Act of 2011 which stipulated high penalties for any event lasting longer than 3.5 hours with prerecorded music. After she realized there were no constitutional grounds for banning a certain type of music, the bill was soon reorganized and signed into law the following fall as the Concert and Music Festival Safety Act which allowed the government to actively assess the threat of any large event held on state property.
With the East Coast scene today at about the same height of popularity that drew such repercussions in LA a few years ago, politicians are inevitably going to get involved. In October a show at the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany drew as many as 1500 people, with some of the intoxicated partygoers fighting with police. Following the night's events, a pending lawsuit was filed leading to numerous event cancellations. In March, the Albany Board of Zoning Appeals ruled that the "large dance parties were in direct violation with the venue's zoning."
The board's case relies entirely on semantics, citing the Armory's zoning as an "auditorium," which they insist implies a seated venue, despite there being any legal definition of the word. Yesterday, after months of deliberation, NY Supreme Court Justice Michael Lynch sided with the city zoning board ruling that it was OK for them to ban large dance parties at the Armory. The justice contends "the Court does not find support for (the Armory's) contention that the challenged decision is a content-based restriction. By its terms, the decision is expressly focused on the event's activities, not the content of music." The judge seems to ignore the fact that the majority of the shows at the venue are not "EDM shows," most with standing room general admission. Upcoming shows include Kendrick Lamar and a Roller Derby. Can anyone explain how a Roller Derby works sitting down? No? Thought so.
Via: Times Union, Times Union (2), Washington Avenue Armory, Pollstar
By Edward Fancher
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 11:25PM | tagged 
